
Class 

Book 

Goipglit]^?- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 




The Rev. Thomas J Davis 

Rector of the Church of the Resurrection 
1850—1872 

Rector Emeritus 1872—1886 



A SKETCH 



OF THE 



LIFE, CHARACTER, 



AND 



PUBLIC SERVICES 



OF 



THOMAS JEFFERSON, 



WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE AID HE 

RENDERED IN ESTABLISHING OUR 

INDEPENDENCE AND 

GOVERNMENT. 



THOMAS J. DAVIS, 

EMERITUS RECTOR OF THE CHURCH OF THE RESURRECTION, 
PHILADELPHIA. 




PHILADELPHIA : 
CLAXTON, REMSEN & HAFl iiXFIN^GER, 

624, 626 & 62S Market Street. 
1876. 



ESS 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 

CLAXTON, REMSEN & HAFFELFINGER, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 




Selheimer &, Ftloore, Printers, 
•iOl Chestnut Street. 



TO 

THE GREA ^ AMERICAN PEOPLE, 

In commemoration of the part take?t by Thomas 
Jefferson m establishing their Independence 
and a Republican form of 
Governme7it, 

THIS VOLUME 
BY 

THE AUTHOR. X^ 

vii 



PREFACE. 



IT has frequently occurred to the mind of the writer 
of this biographical sketch, that the very import- 
ant part enacted by Thomas Jefferson in devising, 
supporting, and securing the independence of these 
United States, was not so generally known and under- 
stood by a great portion of our countrymen as it should 
be, or as they would desire ; much of the patriotism, 
tact, persistence, and devotion evinced by Jefferson 
having been lost sight of in the general admiration 
of military and other heroes more conspicuously con- 
nected with the great contest for liberty. 

Being in possession, therefore, of some facts and 
incidents relating to that epoch hitherto unpublished, 
the writer has compiled this small volume for the pur- 
pose of extending information upon the subject, and 
with the earnest hope that, through it, the character 
of this great man may be presented in its true light, 
and that appreciation of his eminent services be ob- 
tained which they so justly merit. 

Philadelphia, June i, 1876. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Birth, Boyhood, and Early Associates of Thomas Jefferson. 13 

CHAPTER 11. 

Education and Accomplishments — Study of Law — The 
"Stamp Act Bill." 19 

CHAPTER HI. 
Admission to the Bar — Representative in the House of 
Burgesses 29 

CHAPTER IV. 
First Steps towards Independence — Formation of a "Com- 
mittee of Correspondence and Inquiry " by the Colonies 
— -Dissolution of the House of Burgesses by Tord Dun- 
more 37 

CHAPTER V. 

The "Boston Port Bill" — Proposed Congress of Deputies 
from the Colonies — Code of Instructions for Delegates 
to Congress — The Effect produced in England 43 

CHAPTER VI. 
Instructions for the Virginia Delegates to the General Con- 
gress prepared by Jefferson 59 

xi 



Xll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIL 

The Virginia Convention — Unison of the Colonies, and 
Lord North's futile attempts to destroy it — Rejection of 
Overtures from Lord North by the Virginia Legislature... 98 

CHAPTER VIIL 

Jefferson in the Continental Congress — Declaration of the 
Causes for taking up Arms, as drafted by Jefferson — Its 
Publication to the Army by General Washington, and 
General Proclamation by the Ministers of Religion 108 

CHAPTER IX. 

Answer of Congress to Lord North's conciliatory Proposi- 
tions, prepared by Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, and Lee, 
as a Committee 117 

CHAPTER X. 

Letters of Jefferson to a Friend in England 1 29 

CHAPTER XL 

Drafting and Final Adoption of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence — Original Draft as prepared by Thomas Jefferson. 144 

CHAPTER XII. 

Formation and Establishment of a new Code of Laws 
adapted to the Republican Form of Government 166 



/ 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



CHAPTER I. 

Jefferson's birth and boyhood. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON was born in 
Albemarle County, Virginia, on the 
farm called Shadwell, adjoining Monticello, 
on the second day of April, a. d. 1743. 
His ancestors, as far back as they can be 
traced, were respectable, and among the 
early settlers in Virginia, having emigrated 
from Wales. Peter Jefferson, the grand- 
father of Thomas, was the first of whom we 
have any information worthy of notice. He 
had three sons, viz., Thomas, Field, and 
Peter. 

This third son, Peter Jefferson, had much 
of the sturdy qualities of his father, viz., in- 
difference to the hereditary honors and dis- 
tinctions which had hitherto decided rank 
2 13 



14 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

and influence In society; whence democracy 
arose In Virginia In conflict with arlstoc- 
racy. He was a self-educated man, en- 
dowed by nature with strong Intellectual 
powers, with a thirst for knowledge. He 
rose steadily by his own exertions, and 
acquired considerable distinction in the 
colony of Virginia. 

He was commissioned, jointly with Joshua 
Fry, to define the boundary line between 
Viroinia and North Carolina, and subse- 
quently to construct a map of Virginia. 

He Intermarried in 1739 with Jane Ran- 
dolph, who could trace her pedigree back 
in England and Scotland many genera- 
tions. He died in August, 1757, leaving 
his widow with six daughters and two sons, 
of whom Thomas was the elder. 

To both sons he left large estates. To 
Thomas, the Shadwell lands, where he was 
born, including Monticello. But the moth- 
er of Thomas Jefferson survived the year 
1 ']']6 and the Declaration of Independence, 
written by her son and adopted by Con- 
gress on the 4th of July, which he always 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I5 

called his birthday, and kept the day of 
his natural birth concealed as long as he 
lived. And here we begin with Jefferson's 
biography. When he had attained the age 
of five years, he was sent by his father to 
the English school for four years, and then 
he was transferred to the Latin, where he 
continued for five years under the tuition 
of the Rev. Mr. Douglass, from Scotland, 
and with him he acquired a thorough 
knowledge of the rudiments of the Greek, 
Latin, and French languages. 

About this time his father died, leaving 
him an orphan, fourteen years of age, with- 
out a relative or friend competent to ad- 
vise or direct him as his father had done. 
But, unlike that of most young men or boys 
of his age, his character was too well 
moulded and formed to turn aside from 
the path in which he had been trained. 
Whence his course was to continue on- 
ward and upward. 

This we learn from his advice which he 
subsequently gave to his own grandson, 
left under similar circumstances, to whom 



l6 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

he wrote thus : " Safety must rest on your- 
self. A determination never to do what is 
wrong, prudence, and good-humor will go 
far towards securing to you the estimation 
of the world. When I recollect that at 
fourteen years of age the whole care and 
direction of myself was thrown on myself 
entirely, without a relative or friend quali- 
fied to advise or guide me, and recollect 
the various sorts of bad company with 
which I associated from time to time, I am 
astonished I did not turn off with some of 
them, and become as worthless to society 
as they were. 

" I had the good fortune to become ac- 
quainted, very early, with characters of 
very high standing, and to feel the inces- 
sant wish that I could ever become what 
they were. Under temptations and diffi- 
culties I would ask myself, what would Dr. 
Small, Mr. Wythe, or Peyton Randolph do 
in this situation ? 

" I am certain that this mode of decid- 
ing on my conduct tended more to its cor- 
rectness than any reasoning powers I pos- 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1/ 

sessed. Knowing the even and dignified 
line they pursued, I could never doubt for a 
moment which of these two courses would 
be In character for them ; whereas, seeking 
the same object through a process of moral 
reasoning, and with the judicial eye of 
youth, I should often have erred. From 
the circumstances of my position, I was 
often thrown into the company of horse- 
racers, card-players, fox-hunters, scientific 
and professional men, and of dignified men ; 
and many a time have I asked myself, in 
the enthusiastic moment of the death of a 
fox, the victory of a favorite horse, the Issue 
of a question elegantly argued at the bar 
or the great council of the nation, which of 
these kinds of reputation should I prefer 
— that' of a horse-jockey, a fox-hunter, an 
orator, or the honest advocate of my 
country's rights ? 

" Be assured, my dear Jefferson, that 
these little returns unto ourselves, this 
self-searching habit, is not trifling nor use- 
less, but leads to the prudent selection 
and steady pursuit of what Is right." 

2* B 



l8 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Now from these Instructions, written by 
Mr. Jefferson to his grandson, we may 
readily judge of the foundation principles 
planted by the Rev. Mr. Douglass during 
the five years he was under his tuition, and 
by his father before his death. And how 
well they accord with the Divine precept : 
"Train up a child in the way he should 
go, and when he is old he will not depart 
from it." 



CHAPTER II. 

Jefferson's accomplishments. 

AFTER the death of his father, Thomas 
Jefferson was placed under the in- 
struction of the Rev. Mr. Maury, with a 
view to complete his classical preparation 
for college. And now he began to feel 
the charms of ancient learning, and was 
animated, as well as deeply interested, in 
the study of the classics. 

The studies and advantages of ancient 
learning were remarkably congenial to his 
spirit. They seemed to touch the finest 
susceptibilities of his nature, and from them 
he acquired that classical elegance which 
afterwards flowed from his pen, and the 
oriental imagery with which his writings 
abound. 

He continued with Mr. Maury two years, 
and then (1760), at the age of seventeen, 

19 



20 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

he entered the college of William and 
Mary. While in college he was remark- 
able for his solidity and sprightliness, and 
his faculties were even and well balanced. 
His course was not marked by any eccen- 
tricities, but by a remarkable constancy of 
pursuit with inflexibility of purpose. 

Mathematics were his favorite studies. 
In that science he was unsurpassed, and 
also distinguished himself in all the branches 
of education in the established course of 
his alma mater, graduating two years after 
his admission, at the age of nineteen. But 
his studies and diligent pursuit of knowl- 
edge did not stop there. To his devotion 
to philosophy and science, he united an ex- 
quisite taste for the fine arts. 

He made himself so well acquainted with 
architecture, painting, and sculpture, that 
he was accounted one of the best critics of 
the age. And he had an uncommon pas- 
sion for music. His hours of relaxation 
were passed in exercising himself in his 
skill upon the violin, for which he had an 
early and extravagant fondness. And, 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 21 

what was most remarkable, his taste for 
the ancient classics strengthened contin- 
ually, so that It was said of him that he 
scarcely passed a day, In after-life, without 
reading a portion of them. 

He could read and speak French fluent- 
ly, and the Italian and Spanish languages 
quite familiarly. He made himself master 
of the Anglo-Saxon language, as root of 
the English, and likewise an element of 
legal philology. 

But, In the formation of his character, 
*'it was," says he, "my great good fortune, 
and what probably fixed the destinies of 
my life, that Dr. William Small, of Scot- 
land, was then professor of mathematics. 
A man profound In most of the useful 
branches of science, with a happy talent of 
communication, correct and gentlemanly 
manners, and a large and liberal mind. 
And he, most happily for me, became soon 
attached to me, and made me his daily com- 
panion when not engaged In the school. 
And from his conversation I got my first 
views of the expansion of science, and of 



22 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

the system of things in which we are 
placed. 

" Fortunately, the philosophical chair be- 
came vacant soon after my arrival at col- 
lege, and he was appointed to fill it /^r 
interim. And he was the first who ever 
gave in that college regular lectures in 
Ethics, Rhetoric, and Belles-Lettres." 

Mr. Jefferson acknowledged himself also 
indebted to Gov. Fauquier, by whom he 
was favored with particular attention and 
intimacy while in college, and whom he re- 
garded, with the exception of an extrava- 
gant fondness for gambling, as being every- 
thing that could have been wished for by 
Virginia under the royal Government. 

But, among all Jefferson's acquaintances, 
none were held by him in so high estima- 
tion as George Wythe, who was, as it were, 
a second father to him. And, therefore, 
this gentleman deserves a passing notice. 

George Wythe was born about the year 
1727, of respectable parentage, on the 
shores of the Chesapeake. But, unlike 
that of Jefferson, his education was neg- 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 23 

lected by his parents, and he also had led 
an idle and voluptuous life until the age 
of thirty. But, by a remarkable effort, he 
became the best Latin and Greek scholar 
in the State, and also of the highest legal 
attainments. He was elected to the House 
of Delegates, called the House of Burgesses, 
and was subsequently sent to Congress in 
1775 ; was one of the signers of the Decla- 
ration of Independence, and also Chancellor 
of the State until his death in 1806. And 
it was with this famous George Wythe that 
Jefferson studied law. " And there were 
giants in those days." Wherefore Jeffer- 
son, with his finished education and manly 
discipline, entering the pursuit of legal 
knowledge, would not neglect, nor fail to 
improve this opportunity to make the high- 
est attainments in the science and knowl- 
edge of law, and so commend himself to 
the affections and liveliest interest of his 
great preceptor. 

And he also would not, and did not, fail 
to be proud of such a pupil. 

Whence their friendship and ambition 



24 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

\^were mutual; both were stimulated with 
\the highest ambition to excel in the attain- 
ment of knowledge and skill in the legal 
profession. And Jefferson is said to have 
acquired such a universal facility of neat- 
ness and order in business, that he was 
able to fill every office with the hundred 
hands of the fabulous Briareus. 

But whilst thus enthusiastically engaged 
in the pursuit of legal knowledge, and his 
mind filled with the hicrhest ambition of 
intellectual greatness, a very remarkable 
incident occurred in the House of Burgess- 
es, viz., the celebrated speech of Patrick 
Henry on the memorable Sta7np Act Bill in 
1765. This incident produced such a re- 
markable effect on Jefferson's mind, and 
formed such an epoch in his life and 
character, that it will be proper to give a 
brief sketch of Patrick Henry, and this in- 
cident, in the history of Jefferson. 

Patrick Henry was some seven years the 
senior of Jefferson. Of the early life and 
history of Patrick Henry but little is known. 
He had but little education, was unsuccess- 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 25 

ful In all that he undertook, perhaps for the 
want of early training or lacking In stability 
and perseverance, and so he finally drifted 
into the determination to engage In the 
legal profession. And for this It would 
seem Nature had formed him, at least It 
proved so in the sequel ; for it was said of 
him that he neither read nor studied the 
science of law, but being naturally endowed 
with an uncommon power of speech, with 
an indomitable will and an undaunted cour- 
age, without being able to pass an exami- 
nation, he so Importuned his examiners that 
they, moved with compassion, admitted him 
to the bai^ ; nevertheless he proved to be 
the right man In the right time and place. 

The oppressive Stamp Act had become 
notorious and very grievous, producing 
great dissatisfaction among the people in 
both Church and State. And Henry, with 
his good common sense, espoused the 
cause of the people, and so became their 
spokesman and advocate, saying, " We the 
people," and delivered them from the 
church oppression ; and they in turn, with 
3 



'\ 26 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

^y grateful hearts, now elected him their rep- 
\ resentative to the House of Burgesses, 
\ which convened in Williamsburg, 1765. 
'-A Hitherto we have known nothing in re- 
gai*d to Jefferson's civil or political views. 
He was bred and educated a gentleman, 
havinor received a finished education. Asso- 
ciated with and highly esteemed by the 
most learned and distinguished gentlemen 
of \^irginia, he was now engaged in the 
study of law under the direction of Mr. 
George Wythe. And no man in Virginia 
left a character more venerated than 
George Wythe ; and he held no man in 
higher estimation than Mr. Jefferson. So 
now we resume his biography, and begin 
with his civil and political character. 

While the discussion of the Stamp Act 
was proceeding, it engaged the attention 
of Mr. Jefferson, and he was induced to 
leave his studies to hear the debates. 
Standing in the lobby-door of the hall, he 
was captivated by the overwhelming elo- 
quence of the orator of Nature, as Patrick 
Henry was afterwards called. It engaged 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 2/ 

all the faculties of his mind in union with 
the warmest affections of his heart. To 
him it mattered not what others thought, 
for he always thought and acted for himself, 
and according to the understandinor and 
convictions of his own mind. And so exqui- 
site was his delight, that the emotions cre- 
ated at that time remained forever fresh in 
his recollection. Wherefore, in after-life, 
he was always wont to say, " Patrick Henry 
appeared to me to speak as Homer wrote." 

In the midst of his speech, Henry ex- 
claimed, with a voice of thunder and the 
look of a god, ''CcBsar had his Brutus, 
Chmdes the First his Cromwell, and George 

the Third " "Treason!" cried the 

Speaker ; and " treason " echoed from 
every part of the house. 

Henry finished his speech with the firm- 
est emphasis, " may profit by their example. 
If this be treason, make the most of it." 
Such was Jefferson's notion of an honest 
advocate of his country's rights. And this 
feeling and sentiment accorded so well with 
his own that they forever remained with 



28 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

him, and they animated him with all their 
freshness during life. 

And by reason of his great knowledge 
as a scholar, high attainments in the legal 
profession, also in the management of state 
affairs, and the rights of man ; and especially 
in his civil and political relations, his history 
must now partake mainly of that character. 



CHAPTER III. 

JEFFERSON AS A REPRESENTATIVE. 

f N 1766, at the age of twenty-three, Jef- 
X ferson was admitted to the bar, and 
inducted into the practice of law under the 
auspices of his learned preceptor and friend, 
Mr. George Wythe, bringing with him the 
highest legal attainments, well systematized 
in his mind, and ready for use at a moment's 
warning. But his professional character 
was brief. It is impossible to say what 
would have been his standing as a lawyer, 
if his practice at the bar had been pursued 
in time of peace. He was not a public 
speaker, and perhaps he never could have 
become a popular orator. Why it was so, 
has always been a matter of surprise to 
those who have seen his eloquence on paper, 
or have heard him in conversation, wherein 
he always evinced eloquence of the highest 
order. But as a public speaker he lacked 
3* 29 



30 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

volume and copiousness of voice; yet in all 
probability this defect would have been 
overcome in a measure by culture, and 
practice at the bar. 

In 1768, at the age of twenty-five, Mr. 
Jefferson was chosen a representative in 
the House of Burgesses, and took his seat 
in that body, composed of the best and 
ablest men of Viroinia. And althouofh a 
new member, and the youngest in the 
house, he introduced a bill for the permis- 
sion of the emancipation of slaves. 

This bill was, at the time, the most un- 
popular act that he could have done, and 
showed beyond doubt that he was philan- 
thropic, but strictly honest and sincere. 
For he was himself a slave-holder, and 
probably the largest in the house. Whence 
no improper nor popular motives can be 
ascribed to him for this act. It was purely 
philanthropic, and accorded with the prin- 
ciples which he subsequently expressed in 
the Declaration of Independence. Whence 
it was the key-note of his high moral sense 
and religious duty to do unto all others as 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 3I 

he would be done by. And it likewise 
plainly manifested his views of the civil 
and political rights and the duties of those 
chosen or appointed to make good and 
wholesome laws for the good government 
of the people ; as also for the rulers and 
governors in the just administration of the 
laws. 

Mr. Jefferson, as his father had been, was 
a model of true and genuine democracy. 
And so being chosen to represent the peo- 
ple, it was to do that which was just and 
right for the good of all, whatever might 
be their state and condition. 

African slavery had been introduced into 
Virginia, not by the will of the people, but 
by the British Government, with the royal 
sanction, to promote that kind of commerce 
for its own interest. And the owners of 
the slaves, for the same reason, were pro- 
hibited from setting them free, because it 
served to increase the revenue for the 
Crown. 

It was plainly Jefferson's object, there- 
fore, to strike at the root of so much evil. 



32 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

This he did from a high sense of duty, a? 
the representative of the people ; not as 
a partisan, or because the people had so 
instructed him, but rather because, by his 
knowledge and capacity, he was bound in 
principle to legislate as an honest man for 
that which he knew and believed was just 
and right. And all subsequent history 
shows the depth, wisdom, and foresight, as 
well as the soundness, of his principles in 
this first act of his public life, and from 
which he never swerved. Whence, from 
this view, we are to trace the whole course 
of his public life ; for he was sui generis. 

The Stamp Act was repealed by the 
force of Patrick Henry's resolution in the 
Virginia Legislature. But it was followed 
by others still more grievous and oppres- 
sive, and all equally unconstitutional. But 
that upon which all others were based was 
the Declaratory Act of a right in the British 
Parliament to tax the colonies in all cases 
whatsoever. Whence others followed, such 
as the quartering of large bodies of British 
troops in the principal towns of the colo- 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 33 

nies at the expense of, and to the incessant 
annoyance of, the inhabitants ; the dissolu- 
tion in rapid succession of the Colonial 
Assemblies ; the total suspension of the 
legislative power in New York ; the im- 
position of duties on all teas, glass, paper, 
and all other articles of the most necessary 
use ; and finally, of commissioners armed 
with unlimited powers of exacting arbitrary 
customs. 

Whence these despotic measures were 
met by all the colonies with a sort of retali- 
ation, as it was found to be oppressive; and 
thence arose a feeling of sympathy among 
the colonies, and this increased more and 
more, so that finally they united in the 
Declaration of Independence on the 4th of 
July, 1776. 

And from the part which Thomas Jeffer- 
son performed in Virginia, and his sympa- 
thies therein with and for the other colo- 
nies, makes this union of the colonies a 
very important part of his political biogra- 
phy. 

These resolutions of the Lords and Com- 
c 



34 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

mens arrived in America May, 1769. And 
the House of Burgesses of Virginia was 
then in session, of which Mr. Jefferson was 
still a member. And, notwithstanding that 
these resolutions were mainly directed 
against Massachusetts, it was nevertheless 
regarded by all the colonies, and especially 
by Virginia, as being too flagrant to pass 
without rebuke and resistance. 

Whence they were no sooner made 
known to the House of Burgesses, than Mr. 
Jefferson proposed the adoption of counter- 
resolutions, making common cause with 
Massachusetts and all the American colo- 
nies as a whole, and thereby to form. If 
possible, a union of all British America ; de- 
claring that they, and they alone, had the 
right to tax themselves in all cases what- 
soever. Wherefore, these resolutions were 
no sooner adopted, and entered upon the 
journals of the house, than the members 
were summoned to the presence of the 
Governor, Lord Botetourt, to receive the 
sentence of dissolution. 

He said, " Mr. Speaker, and gentlemen 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 35 

of the House of Representatives, I have 
heard of your resolves, and augur ill of 
their effects. You have made it my duty 
to dissolve you, and you are accordingly 
dissolved." 

Thereupon, Jefferson, Henry, and the 
two Lees, with others, retired to a room in 
the Raleigh Tavern, the principal hotel in 
Williamsburg ; formed themselves into a 
voluntary convention, and drew up articles 
of association against the use of any mer- 
chandise imported from Great Britain ; 
and this they signed, recommending it to 
the people. Whence this may be consid- 
ered the first step approaching dissolution 
and independence. 

So popular was this movement, that at 
the call by the Governor for another meet- 
ing of the Legislature, all those who had 
signed these articles of agreement were 
re-elected without a single exception. 
Wherefore the force thus given to this 
heroic sympathy with Massachusetts car- 
ried it home to the hearts of all the patriots 
of every colony, and the importation agree- 



36 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ment became general, and even popular. 
All the luxuries and many of the comforts 
were cheerfully dispensed with for colonial 

terty, among all ages and ranks of both 
se^s. 

There was in Virginia, and also in Mary- 
land, an anti-revenue Covwiiftee of Vigilance 
established in every county to see that it 
was not violated ; and there was at that 
time a perfect union of sympathy not only 
in Virginia, but in all the colonies both 
north and south. 

Beyond this no further measures were 
taken, but all stood firm in the stand thus 
far made ; for the time had arrived for 
patient endurance, vigilance, and a well- 
directed plan for future operations, which 
may be more easily imagined than de- 
scribed. It was a fearful state of suspense, 
which came upon the colonies like an in- 
cubus. 



CHAPTER IV. 

FIRST STEPS TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE. 

DURING this time, Jefferson and his as- 
sociates were not idle ; they neither 
slumbered nor slept, but they were wide 
awake with the " wisdom of the serpent and 
the harmlessness of the dove." The people 
elected annually the same members to the 
Legislature, and beyond endurance and pa- 
tient watchfulness nothing occurred of spe- 
cial notice until the nth of March, 1773, 
when we learn, by a private manuscript 
left by Mr. Jefferson, that this patient endur- 
ance was somewhat changed by an adroit 
movement of his own among his confiden- 
tial friends and reliable patriots. 

The whole scheme having been already 
conceived, digested, and matured in his own 
mind, Mr. Jefferson invited his four confi- 
dential friends, viz., Patrick Henry, Richard 

4 Z7 



38 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, and Dab- 
ney Carr, to meet him in a private room at 
the Raleigh Tavern, to deHberate upon the 
momentous concerns of all British Amer- 
ica ; and so this little conclave had the dis- 
tinoruished merit of oriorinatinor the most 
fundamental engine of colonial strength and 
resistance that had ever been devised, to 
wit, the com7mttees of the diffej^ent colonies, 
whereby a Colonial Congress was brought 
about. 

When Jefferson and his four confidential 
friends were convened, he made known to 
them his plan, which was heartily approved ; 
and he was requested to put it in the form of 
resolutions, which he did, thus : " Be it re- 
solved that a standing Committee of Cor- 
respondence and Inquiry be appointed, to 
consist of eleven persons, to wit, the Hon- 
orable Peyton Randolph, Robert C. Nich- 
olas, Richard Bland, Richard H. Lee, Ben- 
jamin Harrison, Edmund Pendleton, Patrick 
Henry, Dudley Digges, Dabney Carr, Archi- 
bald Cary, and Thomas Jefferson, Esqs. ; any 
six of whom to be a committee, whose busi- 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 39 

ness it shall be to obtain the most early and 
authentic intelligence of all such acts and 
resolutions of the British Parliament, or 
proceedings of administration, as may re- 
late to or affect the British colonies in 
America ; and to keep up and maintain a 
correspondence and communication with 
our sister colonies, respecting these Impor- 
tant considerations ; and the result of such 
of their proceedings from time to time, to 
lay before this house. 

''Resolved, That it be an instruction to the 
said committee that they do, without delay, 
inform themselves particularly of the princi- 
ples and authority on which was constituted 
a Court of Inquiry, said to have been lately 
held in Rhode Island, with powers to trans- 
port persons accused of offences committed 
in America, to places beyond the sea, to be 
tried." 

These resolutions meeting the approba- 
tion of the other four, Mr. Jefferson was 
urged to present them before the House 
of Burgesses the next morning ; but he 
modestly declined, and suggested that they 



40 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

should be presented by his friend and 
brother-in-law, Dabney Carr, who was a 
member of the house, and it would afford 
him an opportunity of making his debiU. 
It was accordingly agreed that Mr. Carr 
should move them, after which they retired 
to their lodcrinofs. 

This movement Mr. Jefferson always re- 
garded as the first step towards the union 
of the colonies, and their ultimate indepen- 
dence. As late as 1816, at the age of sev- 
enty-three, he alludes to it thus in a letter 
to a son of Dabney Carr: "I remember 
that Mr. Carr and myself, returning home 
together, and conversing on the subject by 
the way, concurred in the conclusion that 
that measure [Committees of Correspond- 
ence] must inevitably beget the meeting 
of a Congress of Deputies from all the 
colonies, for the purpose of uniting all in 
the same principles and measures, for the 
maintenance of our rio^hts." 

The resolutions were accordingly brought 
forward in the House of Burgesses the next 
morning by the young Mr. Carr, who failed 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 41 

not to exhibit on that occasion his great 
worth and talent, whom Jefferson thus 
graphically describes : 

" Mr. Carr was a handsome and dignified 
person, engaging in manners, rich in imagi- 
nation, and cogent in reasoning ; firm and 
undaunted in the cause of liberty. And, 
having presented the resolutions to the 
house, he advocated their adoption with a 
speech that was overwhelming and irre- 
sistible. So ably and forcibly did he speak, 
that he electrified the whole assembly. 
And, for once, it was said that the genius 
of Patrick Henry stood rebuked before 
him. 

"The members flocked around him, 
greeted him with praises, and congratulated 
themselves on the accession of such a cham- 
pion to their cause of liberty. And the 
resolutions havine been read a second 
time, were agreed to by the house, nemhie 
contradicente!' 

And it was " Resolved, that the Speaker 
of this House do transmit to the Speakers 
of the different Assemblies of the British 



42 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

colonies on the continent copies of the 
said resolutions, and desire that they will 
lay them before their respective assemblies, 
and request them to appoint some person 
or persons of their respective bodies to 
communicate, from time to time, with the 
said committee." And no sooner had the 
House of Burgesses passed these reso- 
lutions, than they were dissolved by the 
Governor, Lord Dunmore. But this dis- 
solution of the house had the effect to give 
a popular Impulse in favor of the resolu- 
tions. 

Wherefore, this committee assembled the 
next morning and proceeded to business. 
A circular letter, prepared by Mr. Jefferson, 
was adopted and forwarded to the Speakers 
of the other colonies, with the resolutions 
adopted by Virginia, and they were trans- 
mitted by express. By this opportune 
movement a Colonial Conoress was brouofht 
about, and thence also arose the form of 
government adopted by the United States. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE BOSTON PORT BILL. 

BUT a melancholy event occurred about 
two months after the passage of these 
resolutions, viz., Dabney Carr was called 
to pay the debt of nature, which was not 
only a heavy infliction upon Mr. Jefferson, 
but also a grievous loss to him and his 
friends, and to the cause of liberty, and for 
this Mr. Carr was deeply lamented. 

Concerning him, Mr. Jefferson thus wrote 
in a letter to a grandson of Mr. Carr : " I 
well remember the pleasure expressed in 
the countenance and conversation of the 
members generally on this debut of Mr. 
Carr, and the hopes they conceived, as well 
from the talents as the patriotism mani- 
fested. His character was of a high order: 
a spotless integrity, sound judgment, hand- 

43 



44 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

some imagination, enriched by education 
and reading ; quick and clear in his con- 
ceptions, of correct and ready elocution 
impressing every hearer with the sincerity 
of the heart from which it flowed. His 
firmness was inflexible in whatever he 
thought was right. But when no moral 
principle stood in the way, never had man 
more of the milk of human kindness, of in- 
dulgence, of softness, of pleasantry in con- 
versation and conduct. The number of his 
friends, and warmth of their affection, were 
proofs of his worth, and of their estimate 
of it." 

And now, as has been anticipated, the 
recommendations of the Virginia Le^is- 
lature were responded to by all the other 
colonies, and Committees of Correspond- 
ence were appointed. By these means a 
direct and vioforous communication was 
established. Wherefore, from the reciprocal 
interchange of opinions, they became united 
in what constituted their common rights, 
and also a determination to resist oppres- 
sion ; wherefore a union was thus being 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 45 

formed of all the colonies. For they all 
saw plainly and inevitably that the crisis 
had arrived to decide the great constitu- 
tional question — whether or not taxation 
could be imposed without representation, 
which was the great principle for which Mr. 
Jefferson contended, and whence it was 
finally established for all time to come. 

But the intelligence of this spirited and 
united determination of all the colonies 
for popular rights so exasperated the 
British Government, that they determined 
to quash it at once. And so they had 
recourse to the measure known as the 
Boston Port Bill, which was to take effect 
from and after the first day of June, 1774, 
whereby was fixed the irrevocable sen- 
tence of dismemberment from the British 
empire, and hastened also the combination 
of all the colonies to form a union and com- 
munion with each other. And now, what 
was worthy of all praise, Massachusetts 
stood firm with Spartan fortitude, singing 
psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, with 
an appointed day of fasting and prayer. 



46 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Numerous copies of this act of the British 
Pariiament were issued, and to make a deep 
impression, they were printed on mourning 
paper. 

In May, 1774, while the Virginia Legisla- 
ture was In session, this news of Massachu- 
setts was received ; and Mr. Jefferson being 
still a member of the House of Burgesses, 
he a<ialn rallied those with whom he had 
previously conferred, that they might con- 
sult and determine what should be done. 
And strange as it may seem to some, but 
wise, prudent, and judicious to others, they 
aereed to take the same course with Mas- 
sachusetts, viz., that Virginia, also, unite in 
the appointment of a day of general fasting 
and prayer throughout the colony. And 
the day fixed upon was the first day of June, 
on which the Port Bill was to take effect. 

The form of proclamation was drawn up 
by Thomas Jefferson, much after that of the 
New England proclamations, with great so- 
lemnity, calling upon the people and their 
rulers to assemble on the appointed day, 
devoudy to Implore the Divine Interposi- 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 47 

tion ; and, that it might be well received by 
the house, the next morning, May 24th, 
Mr. Jefferson and his associates went to 
Robert C. Nicholas, a very grave and re- 
ligious man, who, being pleased with it, 
moved it with so much solemnity, that it 
was carried without opposition. 

This order of the house for a oeneral 
fast had no sooner fallen under the jealous 
eye of Lord Dunmore, than he made his 
appearance before the House of Burgesses, 
and said : " Mr. Speaker and gentlemen of 
the House of Burgesses : I have in my 
hand a paper published by order of your 
house, conceived in such terms as reflect 
highly upon His Majesty and the Parlia- 
ment of Great Britain, which makes it nec- 
essary to dissolve you, and you are dis- 
solved accordingly ; " and with this dissolu- 
tion of the House of Burgesses, the au- 
thority of the British Government virtually 
ceased in the colony of Virginia. 

On the first day of June, 1 774, as set apart 
by the proclamation, all classes, with great 
solemnity, kept the fast. All kinds of busi- 



48 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ness were suspended, the bells were tolled 
with the funeral knell, the ministers were 
arrayed in their long, black gowns, heading 
the procession of the people, and addressed 
them from their pulpits, with appropriate 
discourses, thereby endeavoring to fortify 
them, and exhorted them to do their duty 
in that state of life in which it had pleased 
God to place them. 

The House of Burgesses, also composed 
of the best men of Virginia, having been 
dissolved by the British Governor, the 
highest indignation was openly expressed, 
and the representatives repaired to the 
" Apollo," and there organized themselves 
into an independent convention, unani- 
mously denouncing the revenue system of 
Great Britain, and declaring that an attack 
on any colony to compel submission should 
be reo^arded as an attack on all British 
America. They also now instructed the 
Committee of Correspondence to urge 
upon all the other colonies the expediency 
of appointing deputies to meet in Congress 
annually, at such place as should be con- 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 49 

venlent, to devise and direct, from time to 
time, the measures required for the gen- 
eral interest. 

To this end, the following declaration 
was drawn up by Mr. Jefferson, and unani- 
mously approved, viz., " An association 
signed by eighty-nine members of the late 
House of Burgfesses. 

"We, His Majesty's most dutiful and 
loyal subjects, the late representatives of 
the good people of this country, having 
been deprived, by the sudden interposition 
of the executive part of this government, 
from giving our countrymen the advice we 
wished to convey to them in a legislative 
capacity, find ourselves under the hard 
necessity of adopting this, the only method 
we have left, of pointing out to our country- 
men such measures as, in our opinion, are 
best fitted to secure our dear riorhts and lib- 
erty from destruction by the heavy hand 
of power now lifted against North America. 

" With much grief we find that our duti- 
ful applications to Great Britain for the 
security of our just, ancient, and constitu- 
5 D 



50 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

tlonal rights, have been not only disre- 
garded, but that a determined system is 
formed, and pressed, for reducing the in- 
habitants of British America to slavery, by 
subjecting them to the payment of taxes 
imposed without the consent of the people 
or their representatives. And that, in pur- 
suit of this system, we find an act of the 
British Parliament, lately passed, for stop- 
ping the harbor and commerce of the town 
of Boston, in our sister colony of Massachu- 
setts Bay, until they the people submit to 
the payment of such unconstitutional taxes ; 
and which act most violently and arbi- 
trarily deprives them of their property in 
wharves erected by private persons, at their 
own great and proper expense ; which act 
is, in our opinion, a most dangerous at- 
tempt to destroy the constitutional liberty 
and rights of all North America. 

'' It is further our opinion, that as tea, on 
its importation into America, is charged 
with a duty imposed by Parliament, for the 
purpose of raising a revenue without the 
consent of the people, it ought not to be 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 5I 

used by any person who wishes well to the 
constitutional rio-hts and liberties of British 
America. And whereas the India Company 
have ungenerously attempted the ruin of 
America, by sending many ships loaded 
with teas into the colonies, thereby intend- 
ing to fix a precedent in favor of arbitrary 
taxation, we deem it highly proper, and do 
accordingly recommend it strongly to our 
countrymen, not to purchase or use any 
kind of East India commodity whatsoever, 
except saltpetre and spices, until the griev- 
ances of America are redressed. 

" We are further clearly of opinion, that 
an attack made on one of our sister colo- 
nies, to compel submission to arbitrary 
taxes, is an attack made on all British 
America, and threatens ruin to the rights 
of all, unless the united wisdom of the 
whole be applied. And for this purpose,, 
it is recommended to the Committee of 
Correspondence, that they communicate 
with their several corresponding commit- 
tees, on the expediency of appointing 
deputies from the several colonies of 



52 LIFE OP' THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

British America, to meet in general Con- 
gress, at such place, annually, as shall be 
thought most convenient ; there to deliber- 
ate on those general measures which the 
united interests of America may from time 
to time require. 

'' A tender regard for the Interests of our 
fellow-subjects, the merchants and manu- 
facturers of Great Britain, prevents us from 
going further at this time ; most earnestly 
hoping that the unconstitutional principle 
of taxing the colonies without their consent, 
will not be persisted in, thereby to compel 
us, aeainst our will, to avoid all commercial 
Intercourse with Britain. 

" Wishing them and our people free and 
happy, we are their affectionate friends, the 
late representatives of Virginia." 

And this meeting of the representatives 
did not leave their seats In the '' Apollo," 
till they had arranged for the preliminary 
meeting for the choice of their deputies 
to the proposed Congress of all the colo- 
nies. 

They passed resolutions to meet at 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 53 

Williamsburg- on the first day of August 
ensuing, to take further considerations for 
the state of the colony of Virginia ; and 
then, having adjourned, they returned to 
their homes, and were universally greeted 
with applause, and commended for the 
course they had pursued, and for what 
they had done. Whence the resistance to 
the British Government was now popular. 

The Committee of Correspondence to 
form a general Congress, met the day after 
this adjournment, Mr. Jefferson in the chair, 
and they prepared letters according to their 
instructions, and despatched them by mes- 
sengers, first to Massachusetts, whose Legis- 
lature was then in session, and in like 
manner to all the colonies as their Legis- 
latures met; and accordingly, by all the 
colonies, delegates were chosen, none send- 
ing less than two nor more than seven. 
Philadelphia, being a convenient central 
point, was designated the place to meet on 
the 5th of September ensuing. 

And according to the resolutions by the 
representatives of Virginia, the people of 
5* 



54 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

the several counties elected delegates to 
meet on the first day of August, in the 
"Apollo," at Williamsburg, to make choice 
of their delegates to the Colonial Con- 
gress, and to pass resolutions also as a 
basis on which to form a union of the colo- 
nies. This was the first Legislature in Vir- 
ginia chosen by the people without the call 
of the Governor. And it was composed of 
the best men in the colony; such as Wash- 
ington, Randolph, Pendleton, Wythe, Henry, 
the Lees, Nicholas, Bland, Harrison, Jeffer- 
son, etc. 

Mr. Jefferson, before leaving home to 
meet in this convention of the Viro^inia 
Legislature, prepared a code of instruc- 
tions for the delegates who should be chosen 
to meet in general Congress at Philadel- 
phia on the 5th of September, i 774. They 
were drawn up in haste, leaving blanks to 
be filled as occasion should require, etc. 
But on his way thither he was taken sud- 
denly ill, and was unable to attend. Where- 
fore, he caused two copies to be for- 
warded, one to Patrick Henry, and an- 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 55 

Other to Peyton Randolph, whom he pre- 
sumed would be chairman of the conven- 
tion. But, for reasons not known, Henry 
failed to present his copy, wherein Jefferson 
was disappointed. The other copy was 
laid on the table of the convention by 
Peyton Randolph, as the proposition of a 
member who was prevented from attend- 
ance by sickness on the road. 

The paper was read, nevertheless, with 
great avidity by the members; and although 
they considered it too strong for the pres- 
ent state of things, yet they were so deeply 
impressed with its profound and luminous 
exposition of the rights and wrongs of the 
colonies, that they caused it to be published 
in pamphlet form, under the title of "A 
Summary View of the Rights of British 
America." A copy of it having found its 
way to England, it was taken up by the 
Whigs in Parliament, and, being somewhat 
interpolated by Mr. Burke to suit the pur- 
poses of opposition there, it passed rapid- 
ly through several editions. 

Whence this drew upon Mr. Jefferson 



56 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

the hottest displeasure of the British Gov- 
ernment. It is impossible to conjecture 
what would have been his fate if he had 
fallen into their hands, or American inde- 
pendence had failed. 

For this act he was particularly marked 
in a bill of attainder that had been com- 
menced in the British Parliament against 
Hancock, Adams, Patrick Henry, Peyton 
Randolph, "and Thomas Jefferson, as au- 
thor of a proposition to the convention 
of Viroinia, for the address to the kinor in 
which was maintained that there was in 
right no link of union between England' 
and the colonies, but that of the same 
kincr ; and that neither the Parliament, nor 
any other functionary of that government, 
had any more right to exercise authority 
over the colonies than over the electorate 
of Hanover ; yet expressing, in conclusion, 
an acquiescence in reasonable restrictions 
of commerce, for the benefit of Great 
Britain, a conviction of the mutual advan- 
tages of union, and a disavowal of the wish 
for separation." 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 5/ 

Hence the plain inference is, that at this 
time, viz., the ist of August, 1774, Mr. 
Jefferson, at the age of thirty-one, was far 
in advance of all others, either in England 
or America, in respect to the legitimate 
and constitutional rio-hts of the American 
colonies. 

In England, Messrs. Burke, Chatham, 
Wilkes, Fox, and others of the opposition, 
Whig members of the House of Commons, 
who advocated the constitutional rights of 
the American colonies, nevertheless con- 
ceded the authority of Parliament over the 
colonies for the purpose of commercial 
regulations, and denied only the right for 
raising revenue. 

As yet no man in America denied this 
right of Parliament in all cases whatso- 
ever, except Mr. Jefferson and his friend 
George Wythe, who agreed with him that 
Parliament had no right to tax the colonies 
in any case whatsoever, without the right 
of representation. 

This view originated with Mr. Jefferson 
himself, which he always maintained; and it 



58 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

was finally so settled In the Declaration of 
Independence, 1776. 

And what is also worthy of notice in 
these instructions, Mr. Jefferson substi- 
tuted the word " state " for " colony." And 
this will not be thought a small circum- 
stance, seeing that in the Declaration of 
Independence the word "states" was made 
a subject of much cavil. And with these 
remarks I will now let the communication 
speak for itself 



CHAPTER VI. 

INSTRUCTIONS TO DELEGATES. 

INSTRUCTIONS by Jefferson for the 
\lrginla delegates to the Continental 
Congress, August ist, 1774. — ''Resolved, 
That it be an instruction to the said depu- 
ties, when assembled in General Congress, 
with the deputies from the other states of 
British America, to propose to the said 
Congress that an humble and dutiful ad- 
dress be presented to His Majesty, beg- 
ging leave to lay before him, as Chief 
Magistrate of the British empire, the united 
complaints of His Majesty's subjects in 
America ; complaints which are excited by 
many unwarrantable encroachments and 
usurpations, attempted to be made by the 
Legislature of one part of the empire upon 
the rights which God and the laws have 
given equally and Independently to all. 

59 



I 



60 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

"To represent to His Majesty that these, 
his states, have often individually made 
humble application to his Imperial throne, 
to obtain, through his intervention, some 
redress of their injured rights ; to none of 
which was ever even an answer conde- 
scended. Humbly to hope that this, their 
joint address, penned in the language of 
truth, and divested of those expressions of 
servility which would persuade His Majesty 
that we are asking favors and not rights, 
shall obtain from His Majesty a more re- 
spectful acceptance ; and this His Majesty 
will think we have reason to expect, when 
he reflects that he is no more than the 
chief officer of the people, appointed by the 
laws, and circumscribed with definite pow- 
ers, to assist in working the great machine 
of government, erected for their use, and 
consequently subject to their superintend- 
ence ; and in order that these, our rights, 
as well as the invasions of them, may be 
laid more fully before His Majesty, to take 
a view of them from the origin and first 
settlement of these countries. 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 6l 

"To remind him that our ancestors, before 
their emigration to America, were the free 
inhabitants of the British dominions in 
Europe, and possessed a right, which 
nature has given to all men, of departing 
from the country in which chance, not 
choice, has placed them, of going in quest 
of new habitations, and of there establish- 
ing new societies, under such laws and 
regulations as to them shall seem most 
likely to promote public happiness. That 
their Saxon ancestors had, under this uni- 
versal law, in like manner left their native 
wilds and woods In the north of Europe, 
had possessed themselves of the island of 
Britain, then less charged with inhabitants, 
and had established there that system of 
laws which has so long been the glory and 
protection of that country. Nor was ever 
any claim of superiority or dependence 
asserted over them by that mother country 
from which they had migrated ; and were 
such a claim made, it is believed His Majes- 
ty's subjects in Great Britain have too firm 
a feeling of the rights devised to them from 



62 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

their ancestors, to bow down the sover- 
eignty of their state before such visionary 
pretensions. And it is thought that no 
circumstance has occurred to distinguish, 
materially, the British from the Saxon emi- 
gration. 

"America was conquered, and her settle- 
ments made and firmly established, at the 
expense of individuals, and not of the 
British public. Their own blood was spilt 
in acquiring lands for their settlement, 
their own fortunes expended in making 
that setdement effectual. For themselves 
they fought, for themselves they con- 
quered, and for themselves alone they 
have the riorht to hold. No shillinor was 
ever issued from the public treasures of 
His Majesty, or his ancestors, for their 
assistance, till of very late times, after the 
colonies had become established on a firm 
and permanent footing. That then, indeed, 
having become valuable to Great Britain 
for her commercial purposes, his Parlia- 
ment was pleased to lend them assistance 
against an enemy who would fain have 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 63 

drawn to herself the benefits of their com- 
merce, to the great aggrandizement of her- 
self, and the danger of Great Britain. Such 
assistance, and in such circumstances, they 
had often before given to Portugal and 
other allied states, with whom they carry on 
a commercial intercourse. Yet these states 
never supposed, that by calling in her aid, 
they thereby submitted themselves to her 
sovereignty. Had such terms been pro- 
posed, they would have rejected them with 
disdain, and trusted for better to the mod- 
eration of their enemies, or to a vigorous 
exertion of their own force. We do not, 
however, mean to underrate those aids, 
which to us were doubtless valuable on 
whatever principles granted ; but we would 
show that they cannot give a title to that 
authority which the British Parliament would 
arrogate over us ; and that they may amply 
be repaid, by our giving to the inhabitants 
of Great Britain such exclusive privileges 
in trade as may be advantageous to them, 
and at the same time not too restrictive 
to ourselves. That settlement having been 



64 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

thus effected in the wilds of America, the 
emigrants thought proper to adopt that 
system of laws under which they had 
hitherto lived in the mother country, and 
to continue their union with her, by sub- 
mitting themselves to the same common 
sovereign, who was thereby made the cen- 
tral link, connecting the several parts of 
the empire thus newly multiplied. 

" But that not long were they permitted, 
however far they thought themselves re- 
moved from the hand of oppression, to 
hold undisturbed the rights thus acquired 
at the hazard of their lives and loss of their 
fortunes. A family of Princes was then on 
the British throne, whose treasonable crimes 
against their people brought on them, after- 
wards, the exertion of those sacred and 
sovereign rights of punishment, reserved 
in the hands of the people for cases of ex- 
treme necessity, and judged by the consti- 
tution unsafe to be delegated to any other 
judicature. While every day brought 
forth some new and unjustifiable exertion 
of power over their subjects on that side the 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 65 

water, It was not to be expected tliat those 
here, much less able at that time to oppose 
the designs of despotism, should be ex- 
empted from injury. 

" Accordingly, this country, which had been 
acquired by the lives, the labors, and for- 
tunes of individual adventurers, was by 
these Princes, at several times, parted out 
and distributed among the favorites and 
followers of their fortunes ; and by an as- 
sumed right of the Crown alone, were 
erected into distinct and independent gov- 
ernments ; a measure which, it is believed, 
His Majesty's prudence and understand- 
ing would prevent him from imitating at 
this day ; as no exercise of such power, of 
dividing and dismembering a country, has 
ever occurred in His Majesty's realm of 
England, though now of very ancient stand- 
ing; nor could it be justified or acquiesced 
under there, or in any other part of His 
Majesty's empire. 

"That the exercise of a free trade with 

all parts of the world, possessed by the 

American colonists as of natural right, and 
6* . E 



66 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

which no law of their own had taken away 
or abridged, was next the object of unjust 
encroachment. Some of the colonies hav- 
ing thought proper to continue the adminis- 
tration of their orovernment in the name and 
under the authority of His Majesty, King 
Charles the First, whom, notwithstanding 
his late deposition, by the commonwealth of 
England, they continued In the sovereignty 
of their state, the Parliament, for the com- 
monwealth, took the same in high offence 
and assumed upon themselves the power of 
prohibiting their trade with all other parts of 
the world, except the island of Great Britain. 
"This arbitrary act, however, they soon 
recalled, and by solemn treaty entered Into 
on the twelfth day of March, 1651, between 
the said commonwealth by their commis- 
sioners, and the colony of Virginia by their 
House of Burgesses, it was expressly stipu- 
lated by the eighth article of the said treaty, 
that they should have ' free trade, as the 
people of England do enjoy, to all places 
and with all nations, according to the laws 
of that commonwealth.' But that, upon 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 67 

the restoration of His Majesty, King Charles 
the Second, their rights of free commerce 
fell once more a victim to arbitrary power ; 
and by several acts of his reign, as well as 
of some of his successors, the trade of the 
colonies was laid under such restrictions as 
show what hopes they might form from the 
justice of a British Parliament, were its 
uncontrolled power admitted over these 
states. History has informed us that bodies 
of men, as well as individuals, are sus- 
ceptible of the spirit of tyranny. A view 
of these acts of Parliament for regulation, 
as it has been affectedly called, of the 
American trade, if all other evidences were 
removed out of the case, would undeniably 
evince the truth of this observation. Be- 
sides the duties they impose on our articles 
of export and import, they prohibit our 
going to any markets northward of Cape 
Finisterre, in the kingdom of Spain, for the 
sale of commodities which Great Britain 
will not take from us, and for the purchase 
of others with which she cannot supply us ; 
and that for no other than the arbitrary pur- 



68 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

pose of purchasing for themselves, by a 
sacrifice of our rights and interests, certain 
privileges in their commerce with an allied 
state, who, in confidence, that their exclu- 
sive trade with America will be continued, 
while the principles and power of the Brit- 
ish Parliament be the same, have indulged 
themselves in every exorbitance which 
their avarice could dictate, or our necessi- 
ties extort ; have raised their commodities 
called for in America, to the double and 
treble of what they were sold for ; before 
such exclusive privileges were given them, 
and of what better commodities, of the 
same kind, would cost us elsewhere ; and, 
at the same time, give us much less for 
what we carry thither, than might be had 
at more convenient ports. That these acts 
prohibit us from carrying, in quest of other 
purchasers, the surplus of our tobaccos, re- 
maining after the consumption of Great 
Britain is supplied ; so that we must leave 
them with the British merchant, for what- 
ever he will please to allow us, to be by 
him reshipped to foreign markets, where 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 69 

he will reap the benefits of making sale of 
them for full value. 

''That to heighten still the idea of Parlia- 
mentary justice, and to show with what 
moderation they are like to exercise power, 
where themselves are to feel no part of Its 
weight, we take leave to mention to His 
Majesty certain other acts of the British 
Parliament, by which they would prohibit 
us from manufacturing, for our own use, the 
articles we raise on our own lands, with our 
own labor. By an act passed in the fifth 
year of the reign of his late Majesty, King 
George the Second, an American subject 
is forbidden to make a hat for himself, of 
the fur which he has taken, perhaps on his 
own soil ; an instance of despotism, to 
which no parallel can be produced In the 
most arbitrary ages of British history. By 
one other act, passed in the twenty-third 
year of the same reign, the iron which we 
make, we are forbidden to manufacture ; and 
heavy as that article is, and necessary in 
every branch of husbandry, besides com- 
mission and Insurance, we are to pay freight 



JO LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

for it to Great Britain, and freight for it 
back again, for the purpose of supporting, 
not men, but machines in the island of 
Great Britain. 

*' In the same spirit of equal and impartial 
legislation, is to be viewed the act of Par- 
liament, passed in the fifth year of the same 
reign, by which American lands are made 
subject to the demands of British creditors, 
while their own lands were still continued 
unanswerable for their debts ; from which 
one of these conclusions must necessarily 
follow, — either that justice is not the same 
thincr In America as in Britain, or else that 
the British Parliament pay less regard to it 
here than there. But that we do not point 
to His Majesty the injustice of these acts, 
with intent to rest on that principle, — the 
cause of their nullity, — but to show that ex- 
perience confirms the propriety of those 
political principles which exempt us from 
the jurisdiction of the British Parliament. 
The true ground on which we declare these 
acts void Is, that the British Parliament has 
no right to exercise authority over us: that 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 7I 

these exercises of usurped power have not 
been confined to instances alone in which 
themselves were interested, but they have 
also intermeddled with the regulation of the 
internal affairs of the colonies. The act of 
the 9th of Anne, for establishing a post- 
office in America, seems to have had little 
connection with the British convenience, ex- 
cept that of accommodating his Majesty's 
ministers and favorites with the sale of a 
lucrative and easy office. That thus we have 
hastened through the reigns which preceded 
His Majesty's, during which the violations 
of our rights were less alarming, because 
repeated at more distant intervals, than 
that rapid and bold succession of Injuries, 
which is likely to distinguish the present 
from all other periods of American history. 
Scarcely have our minds been able to 
emerge from the astonishment into which 
one stroke of parliamentary thunder has 
involved us, before another more heavy and 
more alarming is fallen on us. Single acts 
of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental 
opinion of a day; but a series of oppres- 



72 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

slons, begun at a distinguished period, and 
pursued unalterably through every change 
of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, 
systematical plan of reducing us to slavery. 
''That the act passed in the fourdi year 
of His Majesty's reign, entitled 'An act (Act 
for granting certain duties.)' One other act 
passed in the fifth year of his reign, entitled 
'An act (Stamp Act.)' One other act passed 
in the sixth year of his reign,entitled ' An act 
(Act declaring the right of Parliament over 
the colonies.)' And one other act passed in 
the seventh year of his reign, entitled ' An 
act (Act for granting duties on paper, etc.),' 
form that connected chain of parliamentary 
usurpations which has already been the sub- 
ject of frequent applications to His Majesty, 
and the Houses of Lords and Commons of 
Great Britain ; and no answers having yet 
been condescended to any of these, we 
shall not trouble His Majesty with a repe- 
tition of the matters they contained. But 
that one other act, passed in the same sev- 
enth year of his reign, having been a pecu- 
liar attempt, must ever require peculiar 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 73 

mention. It is entitled 'An act (/\ct sus- 
pending Legislature of New York). 

"One free and independent Legislature 
hereby takes upon itself to suspend the 
powers of another, free and independent 
as itself; thus exhibiting a phenomenon 
unknown In nature, the creator and creature 
of its own power. Not only the principles 
of common sense, but the common feelings 
of human nature must be surrendered up, 
before His Majesty's subjects here can be 
persuaded to believe that they hold their 
political existence at the will of a British 
Parliament. Shall these oovernments be 
dissolved, their property annihilated, and 
their people reduced to a state of nature 
at the imperious breath of a body of men 
whom they never saw, in whom they never 
confided, and over whom they have no 
powers of punishment or removal, let their 
crimes against the American public be ever 
so great ? Can any one reason be assigned 
why one hundred and sixty tliousand elect- 
ors In the island of Great Britain should 
give law to four millions in the states of 



74 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

America, every individual of whom is equal 
to every individual of diem in virtue, in 
understanding, and bodily strength ? Were 
this to be adm.itted, instead of being a free 
people, as we have hitherto supposed, and 
mean to continue ourselves, we should sud- 
denly be found the slaves, not of one, but 
of one hundred and sixty thousand tyrants; 
distinguished, too, from all others, by this 
singular circumstance, that they are removed 
from the reach of fear, the only restrain- 
ing motive which may hold the hand of a 
tyrant. 

'* That by an act to discontinue in such 
manner, and for such time, as are therein 
mentioned, the landing and discharging, 
lading or shipping of goods, wares, and 
merchandise, at the town and within the 
harbor of Boston, in the province of Mas- 
sachusetts Bay, in North America, which 
was passed at the last session of the British 
Parliament, a large and populous town, 
whose trade was their sole subsistence, was 
deprived of that trade, and involved in 
utter ruin. Let us, for a while, suppose the 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 75 

question of right suspended, in order to 
examine this act on principles of justice. 
An act of ParHament had been passed, im- 
posing duties on teas, to be paid in America, 
against which act the Americans had pro- 
tested as inauthoritative. The East India 
Company, who, till that time, had never sent 
a pound of tea to America on their own 
account, step forth on that occasion, the 
asserters of parliamentary right, and send 
hither many shiploads of that obnoxious 
commodity. The masters of their several 
vessels, however, on their arrival in America, 
wisely attended to admonition, and returned 
with their cargoes. In the province of New 
England alone, the remonstrances of the 
people were disregarded, and a compliance, 
after being many days waited for, was flatly 
refused. 

" Whether in this the master of the vessel 
was governed by his obstinacy or his in- 
structions, let those who know say. There 
are extraordinary situations which require 
extraordinary interpositions. An exas- 
perated people, who feel that they possess 



^6 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

power, are not easily restrained within 
limits strictly regular. A number of them 
assembled in the town of Boston, threw the 
tea into the ocean, and dispersed without 
doing any other act of violence. If in this 
they did wrong, they were known, and were 
amenable to the laws of the land ; against 
which, it could not be objected that they 
had ever, in any instance, been obstructed, 
or diverted from their regular course, in 
favor of popular offenders. They should, 
therefore, not have been distrusted on this 
occasion. 

** But that ill-fated colony had formerly 
been bold in their enmities aoainst the 
house of Stuart, and were now devoted to 
ruin, by that unseen hand which governs 
the momentous affairs of this great empire. 
On the partial representations of a few 
worthless ministerial dependants, whose 
constant ofhce it has been to keep that 
government embroiled ; and who, by their 
treacheries, hope to obtain the dignity of 
Bridsh knighthood, without calling for a 
party accused, without asking a proof, with- 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. // 

out attempting a distinction between the 
guilty and the innocent, the whole of that 
ancient and wealthy town is in a moment 
reduced from opulence to beggary. Men 
who had spent their lives in extending the 
British commerce, who had invested in that 
place the wealth their honest endeavors 
had merited, found themselves, and their 
families, thrown at once on the world for 
subsistence by its charities. Not the hun- 
dredth part of the inhabitants of that town 
had been concerned in the act complained 
of; many of them were in Great Britain, 
and in other parts beyond sea, yet all were 
involved in one indiscriminate ruin by a 
new executive power unheard of till then, 
that of a British Parliament. A property 
of the value of many millions of money 
was sacrificed to revenge, not to repay, 
the loss of a few thousands. This is ad- 
ministering justice with a heavy hand in- 
deed ! 

*' And when is this tempest to be arrested 
in its course ? Two wharves are to be 
opened again when His Majesty shall think 



78 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

proper ; the residue which hned the exten- 
sive shores of the bay of Boston, are for- 
ever interdicted the exercise of commerce. 
This Htde exception seems to have been 
thrown In for no other purpose, than that 
of setting a precedent for Investing His 
Majesty with legislative powers. If the 
pulse of his people shall beat calmly under 
this experiment, another and another will 
be tried, till the measure of despotism be 
filled up. It would be an insult on common 
sense, to pretend that this exception was 
made in order to restore its commerce to 
that great town. The trade which cannot 
be received at two wharves alone, must, of 
necessity, be transferred to some other 
place ; to which it will soon be followed by 
that of the two wharves. Considered In 
this lieht, It would be an insolent and cruel 
mockery at the annihilation of the town of 
Boston. By the act for the suppression of 
riots and tumults In the town of Boston, 
passed also in the last session of Parlia- 
ment, a murder committed there, Is, If the 
Governor pleases, to be tried In the Court 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, 79 

of King's Bench, In the island of Great 
Britain, by a jury of Middlesex. The wit- 
nesses, too, on receipt of such a sum as the 
Governor shall think it reasonable for them 
to expend, are to enter into cognizance to 
appear at the trial. This is, in other words, 
taxing them to the amount of their recog- 
nizance ; and that amount may be whatever 
a Governor pleases. For who does His 
Majesty think can be prevailed on to cross 
the Atlantic, for the sole purpose of bear- 
ing evidence to a fact? His expenses are 
to be borne, indeed, as they shall be esti- 
mated by a Governor ; but who are to feed 
the wife and children whom he leaves be- 
hind, and who have had no other subsist- 
ence but his daily labor ? Those epidemical 
disorders too, so terrible in a foreign cli- 
mate, is the cure of them to be estimated 
among the articles of expense, and their 
danger to be warded off, by the almighty 
power of a Parliament ? And the wretched 
criminal, if he happened to have offended 
on the American side, stripped of his 
privilege of trial by peers of his vicinage, 



8o LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

removed from the place where alone full 
evidence could be obtained, without money, 
without counsel, without friends, without 
exculpatory proof, is tried before judges 
predetermined to condemn. The cowards 
who would suffer a countryman to be torn 
from the bowels of their society, in order 
to be thus offered a sacrifice to parliamen- 
tary tyranny, would merit that everlasting 
infamy now fixed on the authors of the 
act! A clause, for a similar purpose, had 
been introduced into an act passed in the 
twelfth year of His Majesty's reign, en- 
titled, ' An act for the better securing and 
preserving His Majesty's dockyards, maga- 
zines, ships, ammunition, and stores ; ' 
against which, as meriting the same cen- 
sures, the several colonies have already 
protested. 

" That these are the acts of power as- 
sumed by a body of men foreign to our 
constitutions, and unacknowledged by our 
laws ; against which we do, on behalf of 
the inhabitants of British America, enter 
this our solemn and determined protest. 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 8l 

And we do earnesdy entreat His Majesty, 
as yet the only mediatory power between 
the several states of the British empire, to 
recommend to his Parliament of Great Brit- 
ain, the total revocation of these acts, which, 
however nugatory they be, may yet prove 
the cause of further discontents and jeal- 
ousies among us. 

" That we next proceed to consider the 
conduct of His Majesty as holding the ex- 
ecutive powers of the laws of these states, 
and mark out his deviations from the line 
of duty. By the constitution of Great Brit- 
ain, as well as of the several American 
states. His Majesty possesses the power 
of refusing to pass Into a law any bill 
which has already passed the other two 
branches of the Legislature. His Majesty, 
however, and his ancestors, conscious of 
the impropriety of opposing their single 
opinion to the united wisdom of two 
Houses of Parliament, while their proceed- 
ings were unbiased by Interested princi- 
ples, for several ages past have modestly 
declined the exercise of this power In that 



S2 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

part of his empire called Great Britain ; 
but, by change of circumstances, other prin- 
ciples than those of justice simply, have 
obtained an influence on their determina- 
tions. The addition of new states to the 
British empire has produced an addition 
of new, and sometimes opposite, interests. 
It is now, therefore, the great office of His 
Majesty to assume the exercise of his neg- 
ative power, and to prevent the passage of 
laws, by any one Legislature of the empire, 
which might bear injuriously on the rights 
and interests of another. Yet this will not 
excuse the wanton exercise of this power, 
which we have seen His Majesty practise 
on the laws of the American Legislatures. 
For the most trifling reasons, and some- 
times for no conceivable reason at all, His 
Majesty has rejected laws of the most salu- 
tary tendency. The abolition of domestic 
slavery is the great object of desire in those 
colonies where it was, unhappily, introduced 
in their infant state. But previous to the 
enfranchisement of the slaves we have, it Is 
necessary to exclude all further importa- 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. Si, 

tions from Africa. Yet our repeated at- 
tempts to effect this, by prohibitions, and by 
imposing duties wliich might amount to a 
prohibition, have been hitherto defeated by 
His Majesty's negative ; thus preferring the 
immediate advantages of a few British cor- 
sairs to the lasting interests of the Amer- 
ican states, and to the rights of human 
nature, deeply wounded by this infamous 
practice. Nay, the single interposition of 
an interested individual against a law, was 
scarcely ever known to fail of success, 
though in the opposite scale were placed 
the interests of a whole country. That 
this is so shameful an abuse of a powder, 
trusted with His Majesty for other purposes, 
as, if not reformed, would call for some le- 
gal restrictions. 

" With equal inattention to the necessi- 
ties of his people here, has His Majesty per- 
mitted our laws to lie neglected in England 
for years, neither confirming them by his 
assent, nor annulling them by his negative ; 
so that such of them as have no suspending 
clause, we hold on the most precarious of 



84 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

all tenures — His Majesty's will; and such 
of them as suspend themselves till His Ma- 
jesty's assent be obtained, we have feared 
might be called into existence at some future 
and distant period, when time and change of 
circumstances shall have rendered them de- 
structive to his people here ; and to render 
this grievance still more oppressive. His Ma- 
jesty, by his instructions,has laid his govern- 
ors under such restrictIons,that they can pass 
no law of any moment, unless it have such 
suspending clause ; so that^ however imme- 
diate may be the call for legislative inter- 
position, the law cannot be executed till it 
has twice crossed the Atlantic, by which 
time the evil may have spent its whole 
force. 

" But in what terms reconcilable to ma- 
jesty, and at the same time to truth, shall 
we speak of a late instruction to His Ma- 
jesty's Governor of the colony of Virginia, 
by which he is forbidden to assent to any 
law for the division of a county, unless the 
new county will consent to have no repre- 
sentative in assembly ? That colony has as 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 85 

yet affixed no boundary to the westward ; 
their western counties, therefore, are of in- 
definite extent. Some of them are actually 
seated many hundred miles from their east- 
ern limits. 

'' Is it possible, then, that His Majesty can 
have bestowed a sinorle thouoht on the sit- 
uation of those people, who, in order to ob- 
tain justice for injuries, however great or 
small, must, by the laws of the colony, at- 
tend their county court at such a distance, 
with all their witnesses, monthly, till their 
litio^ation be determined ? Or does His Ma- 
jesty seriously wish, and publish it to the 
world, that his subjects should give up the 
glorious right of representation, with all the 
benefits derived from that, and submit them- 
selves to be absolute slaves of his sovereign 
will ? Or is it rather meant to confine the 
legislative body to their present numbers, 
that they may be the cheaper bargain, when- 
ever they shall become worth a purchase? 

" One of the articles of impeachment 
against Tresilian, and the other judges 
of Westminster Hall, in the reign of Rich- 



S6 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ard the Second, for which they suffered 
death, as traitors to their country, was that 
they had advised the King that he might 
dissolve his Parliament at any time ; and 
succeeding kings have adopted the opinion 
of these unjust judges. Since the establish- 
ment, however, of the British constitution, 
at the glorious revolution, on its free and 
ancient principles, neither His Majesty nor 
his ancestors have exercised such a power 
of dissolution in the island of Great Britain. 
And when His Majesty was petitioned by the 
united voice of his people, there to dissolve 
the present Parliament, who had become 
obnoxious to them, his ministers were heard 
to declare, in open Parliament, that His Ma- 
jesty possessed no such power by the con- 
stitution. But how different their language, 
and his practice here ! To declare, as their 
duty required, the known rights of their 
country; to oppose the usurpation of every 
foreign judicature ; to disregard the impe- 
rious mandates of a minister or governor, 
have been the avowed causes of dissolving 
Houses of Representatives in America. But 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 8/ 

if such powers be really vested In His Ma- 
jesty, can he suppose they are there placed 
to awe the members from such purposes 
as these ? When the representative body 
have lost the confidence of their constituents; 
when they have notoriously made sale of 
their most valuable rights ; when they have 
assumed to themselves powers which the 
people never put into their hands, then, 
indeed, their continuing in office becomes 
dangerous to the state, and calls for an ex- 
ercise of the power of dissolution. Such 
being the causes for which the represent- 
ative body should and should not be dis- 
solved, will it not appear strange to an 
unbiased observer, that that of Great Brit- 
ain was not dissolved, while those of the 
colonies have repeatedly incurred that sen- 
tence? 

" But your Majesty, or your governors, 
have carried this power beyond every limit 
known or provided for by the laws. After 
dissolving one House of Representatives, 
they have refused to call another; so that, for 
a great length of time, the Legislature pro- 



88 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

vided by the laws has been out of existence. 
From the nature of thnigs, every society 
must, at all times, possess within itself the 
sovereign power of legislation. The feel- 
ings of human nature revolt ao^-ainst the 

o o 

supposition of a state so situated as that it 
may not, in any emergency, provide against 
dangers which perhaps threaten immediate 
ruin. While those bodies are in existence, 
to whom the people have delegated the 
powers of legislation, they alone possess 
and may exercise those powers ; but when 
they are dissolved by the lopping off one 
or more of their branches, the power re- 
verts to tlie people, who may use it to un- 
limited extent, either assemblino- tocrether 
in person, sending deputies, or in any other 
way they may think proper. We forbear 
to trace consequences further; the dangers 
are conspicuous with which this practice is 
replete. 

" That we shall, at this time, also, take 
notice of an error in the nature of our 
land-holdings, which crept in at a very 
early period of our settlement. The in- 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 89 

troduction of the feudal tenures into the 
klno-dom of Enorland, though ancient, is 
well enoucrh understood to set this matter 
in a proper light. In the earlier ages of 
the Saxon settlement, feudal holdings were 
certainly altogether unknow^n, and very few, 
if any, had been introduced at the time of 
the Norman conquest. Oar Saxon ances- 
tors held their lands, as they did their 
personal property, in absolute dominion, 
disencumbered with any superior, answer- 
ing nearly to the nature of those posses- 
sions which the feudalists term allodial. 
William the Norman first introduced that 
system generally. The lands which had be- 
lono^ed to those who fell in the battle of 
Hastings, and in the subsequent insur- 
rection of his reign, formed a considerable 
proportion of the lands of the whole king- 
dom. These he granted out, subject to 
feudal duties, as did he also those of a 
great number of his new subjects, who, 
by persuasion or threats, were Induceci to 
surrender them for that purpose. But 
still, much was left in the hands of his 



QO LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Saxon subjects, held of no superior, and 
not subject to feudal conditions. These, 
therefore, by express laws, enacted to ren- 
der uniform the system of military defence, 
were made liable to the same military du- 
ties as if they had been feuds ; and the 
Norman lawyers soon found means to sad- 
dle them, also, with all the other feudal 
burdens ; but still they had not been sur- 
rendered to the King ; they were not de- 
rived from his grant, and, therefore, they 
were not holden of him. A general prin- 
ciple, indeed, was introduced, that * all lands 
in England were held either mediately or 
immediately of the Crown ; ' but this was 
borrowed from those holdings which were 
truly feudal, and only applied to others for 
the purpose of illustration. Feudal hold- 
ings were, therefore, but exceptions out of 
the Saxon laws of possession, under which 
all lands were held in absolute right. These, 
therefore, still form the basis or ground- 
work of the common law, to prevail where- 
soever the exceptions have not taken place. 
'' America was not conquered by William 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 9I 

the Norman, nor its lands surrendered to 
him, or any of his successors. Possessions 
there are, undoubtedly, of the allodial na- 
ture. Our ancestors, however, who mi- 
grated thither, were laborers, not lawyers. 
The fictitious principle, that all lands belong 
originally to the King, they were early per- 
suaded to believe real, and accordingly 
took erants of their own lands from the 
Crown. And while the Crown continued to 
grant for small sums, and on reasonable 
rents, there was no inducement to arrest 
the error, and lay it open to public view. 
But His Majesty has lately taken on him 
to advance the terms of purchase, and of 
holding to the double of what they were ; 
by which means, the acquisition of lands 
being rendered difficult, the population of 
our country is likely to be checked. It is 
time, therefore, for us to lay this matter be- 
fore His Majesty, and to declare that he 
has no right to grant lands of himself. 
From the nature and purpose of civil insti- 
tutions, all the lands within the limits which 
any particular society has circumscribed 



92 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

around itself, are assumed by diat society, 
and subject to their allotment ; this may be 
done by themselves assembled collectively, 
or by their Legislature, to whom they may 
have delegated sovereign authority. And 
if they are allotted in neither of these ways, 
each individual of the society may appro- 
priate to himself such lands as he finds 
vacant, and occupancy will give him title. 

'' That, in ordc^r to enforce the arbi- 
trary measures before complained of. His 
Majesty has, from time to time, sent among 
us large bodies of armed forces, not made 
up of the people here, nor raised by the 
authority of our laws. Did His Majesty 
possess such a right as this, it might swallow 
up all our other rights, whenever he should 
think proper. But His Majesty has no 
right to land a single armed man on our 
shores. And those whom he sends here 
are liable to our laws, for the suppression 
and punishment of riots, routs, and un- 
lawful assemblies ; or are hostile bodies 
invadine us in defiance of law. When, in 
the course of the late war, it became ex- 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 93 

pedient that a body of Hanoverian troops 
should be brought over for the defence of 
Great Britain, His Majesty's grandfather, 
our late sovereign, did not pretend to in- 
troduce them under any authority he pos- 
sessed. Such a measure would have given 
just alarm to his subjects of Great Britain, 
whose liberties would not be safe, if armed 
men of another country and of another spirit 
might be brought into the realm at any time, 
without the consent of their Legislature. 
He, therefore, applied to Parliament, who 
passed an act for that purpose, limiting 
the number to be brought in, and the time 
they were to continue. In like manner is His 
Majesty restrained in every part of the 
empire. He possesses, indeed, the exec- 
utive power of the laws in every state ; 
but they are the laws of the particular 
state, which he is to administer within that 
state, and not those of any one within the 
limits of another. Every state must judge 
for itself the number of armed men which 
they may safely trust among them, of whom 
they are to consist, and under what restric- 



94 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

tlons they are to be laid. To render these 
proceedings still more criminal against our 
laws, instead of subjecting the military to 
the civil power, His Majesty has expressly 
made the civil subordinate to the military. 
But can His Majesty thus put down all law 
under his feet? Can he erect a power 
superior to that which erected himself? 
He has done it, indeed, by force ; but let 
him remember that force cannot eive riorht. 
" That these are our orrievances which we 
have thus laid before His Majesty, with that 
freedom of language and sentiment which 
becomes a free people, claiming their rights, 
as derived from the laws of nature, and not 
as the orift of their Chief Mamstrate. Let 

o o 

those flatter who fear ; It Is not an Ameri- 
can art. To give praise where It is not due, 
might be well from the venal, but would 111 
beseem those who are asserting the rights 
of human nature. They know, and will 
therefore say, that kings are the servants, 
not the proprietors, of the people. Open 
your breast, sire, to liberal and expanded 
thought. Let not the name of George the 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 95 

Third be a blot on the page of history. 
You are surrounded by British counsellors, 
but remember that they are parties. You 
have no ministers for American affairs, be- 
cause you have none taken from among us, 
nor amenable to the laws on which they 
are to give you advice. It behooves you, 
therefore, to think and to act for yourself 
and your people. The great principles of 
right and wrong are legible to every reader; 
to pursue them requires not the aid of 
many counsellors. The whole art of gov- 
ernment consists in the art of being honest. 
Only aim to do your duty, and mankind 
will give you credit where you fail. No 
longer persevere in sacrificing the rights of 
one part of the empire to the inordinate 
desires of another ; but deal out to all 
equal and impartial right. Let no act be 
passed by any one Legislature, which may 
infringe on the rights and liberties of an- 
other. This is the important post in which 
fortune has placed you, holding the balance 
of a great, if a well poised empire. This, 
sire, is the advice of your great American 



96 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

council, on the observance of which may 
perhaps, depend your feHcity and future 
fame, and the preservation of that harmony 
which alone can continue, both to Great 
Britain and America, the reciprocal advan- 
tao^es of their connection. It is neither our 
wash nor our interest to separate from her. 
We are willing, on our part, to sacrifice 
everything which reason can ask, to the 
restoration of that tranquillity for which all 
must wish. On their part let them be ready 
to establish union on a generous plan. Let 
them name their terms, but let them be just. 
Accept of every commercial preference it is 
in our power to give, for such things as we 
can raise for their use, or they make for ours. 
But let them not think to exclude us from 
going to other markets to dispose of those 
commodities which they cannot use, nor to 
supply those wants which they cannot sup- 
ply. Still less, let it be proposed, that our 
properties, within our own territories, shall 
be taxed or regulated by any power on 
earth but our own. The God who gave us 
life, gave us liberty at the same time. The 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 97 

hand of force may destroy, but cannot dis- 
join them. This, sire, is our last, our de- 
termined resolution. And that you will be 
pleased to interpose with that efficacy which 
your earnest endeavors may insure to pro- 
cure redress of these our areat orievances, 
to quiet the minds of your subjects in Brit- 
ish America against any apprehensions of 
future encroachment, to establish paternal 
love and harmony through the whole em- 
pire, and that that may continue to the latest 
ages of time. Is the fervent prayer of all 
British America." 

9 G 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE VIRGINIA CONVENTION. 

THE Convention of Virginia, meeting 
at Williamsburg, August ist, 1774, 
from which Mr. Jefferson was absent by 
sickness on his way thither, besides pub- 
lishing Mr. Jefferson's communication in 
pamphlet form for distribution, elected the 
Congressional delegates to the number of 
seven, viz., Peyton Randolph, Richard H. 
Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, 
Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and 
Edmund Pendleton ; and transacted such 
other business as was necessary, and 
pledged themselves to make common 
cause with the people of Boston, break- 
ing off all commercial communications with 
the mother country until the grievances 
complained of should be redressed. Hav- 
ing elected Peyton Randolph the chairman, 
or, in case of his death, Robert C. Nicholas, 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 99 

he was empowered on any future occasion, 
that might in his opinion require it, to 
reconvene the several delegates of the 
colony at such time and place as he might 
judge proper ; this action of the colony 
showed conclusively that they were de- 
termined that Virginia should continue in- 
dependent of the British Government. 

The first General Congress of the colo- 
nies assembled the 5th of September, 1774, 
at Carpenters' Hall, in Philadelphia. They 
organized for business by choosing Pey- 
ton Randolph, of Virginia, president, and 
Charles Thompson, of Pennsylvania, sec- 
retary. Delegates were in attendance 
from every province except Georgia, and 
numbered .fifty-five. Jefferson was not 
chosen among the delegates from Virginia. 
Why it was so does not appear ; and it will 
be useless to inquire, seeing that he makes 
no allusion to it, and history is likewise si- 
lent. It was doubtless by reason of his sick- 
ness, which would prevent his attendance. 
As the proceedings of that body belong to 
general history, no reference will be made 



100 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

to it, in connection with Mr. Jefferson, until 
he shall become a member of it. Its first 
session terminated on the 2d of October, 
1774, to meet again, at the same place, on 
the loth of May ensuing. 

It was a time of sorrow. Hitherto, 
Great Britain had been honored, revered, 
and dignified, by all the American colonies, 
with the time-honored appellation of the 
mother cozmtry. Not only because that 
there was traced the long line of their 
ancestors, but also, in many instances, their 
parents, relatives, and highly esteemed 
friends. Wherefore, there were many ties 
and strong feelings of love and sympathy 
too dear not to be deeply and keenly felt. 
And it was only where and when reason, 
with a sound judgment, animated and forti- 
fied by those sterling virtues which always 
characterize the noble and the brave, that 
these feelings gave way ; and happily it 
was for America, and the cause of freedom 
to mankind, that our fathers possessed 
these noble virtues in a high degree. 

In the interim, by the adjournment of the 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. lOI 

General Congress of the colonies, the pop- 
ular Convention of Virginia re-assembled, 
upon invitation of Peyton Randolph, on the 
20th of March (1775), to deliberate further 
on the condition of public affairs in regard 
to matters about to be presented by the 
British Government. And, fortunately, Mr. 
Jefferson was still a member thereof; for 
never was his presence more needed. A 
great crisis was now pending, which was to 
try the wisdom and fortitude of all the 
colonies, and, happily, Virginia was the 
first to assemble ; and on her devolved the 
first action to defeat and render abortive 
one of the deepest and most subtle 
schemes that could be devised. 

The British Government, perceiving her 
dilemma by the union of the colonies, 
sought to evade and defeat it by a trick in 
diplomacy. Frederick North, better known 
as Lord North, in 1767 was appointed 
Chancellor of the English Exchequer; and 
by reason of his great ability, and profound 
art and subtlety in the management of the 
affairs in England at that time, he was in 
9* 



I02 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

1770 made first Lord of the Treasury, and 
he now, in this critical emergency, united 
all his art, skill, and ability to frustrate, 
prevent, or defeat this union and combin- 
ation of the American colonies. To do 
this, he, with great subtlety, acted out the 
old maxim, " Divide and conquer." Art- 
fully concealing all knowledge and convic- 
tion of the union formed and established 
by the American colonies, and of the 
meeting of the Congress in Philadelphia 
on the 5th of September, 1774; likewise, 
with most profound dissimulation, he pro- 
posed, as an act of great clemency, to each 
of the colonies separately, a proposition 
whereby each colony might be restored to 
favor, and resume Its former relations 
with the Crown and Parliament of Great 
Britain. 

Fortunately for this, the popular Con- 
vention of Virginia had assembled the 
second time, on the 20th of March (1775), 
agreeably to its provisions, by the call of 
Peyton Randolph, its chairman. And al- 
though he was also chairman of the general 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. IO3 

Convention in Philadelphia, he felt that it 
was his bounden duty to remain chairman 
of the Virginia Convention until this ques- 
tion should be fully settled there. And 
therefore Thomas Jefferson was chosen to 
fill his place in the General Congress, to 
meet on the loth of May ensuing, in 
Philadelphia. But Mr. Jefferson was also 
prevailed on to retain his seat in the Vir- 
ginia Convention till this proposition of 
Lord North should have been settled, 
which he consented to do. Much indigna- 
tion was felt by some of the Virginia mem- 
bers, at this subtle attempt of Lord North, 
and fears were entertained lest some faint- 
hearted ones, or those strongly attached to 
the mother country, should suffer them- 
selves to be 7nisled. And whilst it was 
most wise and judicious that the proposi- 
tion should be received, it was also ex- 
ceedingly important that it should be wisely 
and judiciously considered, and its real 
design fully and ably exposed. And it 
was for this reason that Mr. Jefferson was 
urged by Peyton Randolph to retain his 



104 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

seat in the Virginia Assembly, and to afford 
this opportunity of receiving this communi- 
cation, notwithstanding that Virginia had 
on the 24th of May, 1774, renounced all 
allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain, 
and was now holding its second popular 
Assembly ; and likewise, in this second 
session, had passed a resolution that the 
colony of Virginia be immediately put into 
a state of defence ; that a committee be 
appointed to prepare a plan for embody- 
ing and disciplining such a number of men 
as would be sufficient for the purpose. Yet 
to meet and defeat this subtle overture of 
the Crown, by Lord North, the General 
Assembly summoned by Governor Dun- 
more on the first day of June, 1775, was 
obeyed. And when the Assembly met. 
Lord Dunmore, with a mighty flourish of 
his graces, informed the house that His 
Majesty, in the plenitude of his royal con- 
descension, had extended the olive branch 
to his discontented subjects in America ; 
and had opened the door of reconcilia- 
tion upon such terms as demanded their 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. IO5 

grateful consideration and prompt accept- 
ance. 

This olive branch, however, proved to be 
the measures contrived by Lord North 
to prevent the union of the colonies, and 
bring them back to their allegiance to the 
British Government under this provision, 
viz.. That should any colony propose to 
contribute its proportion towards providing 
for the common defence, which proportion 
was to be disposable by Parliament ; and 
also to defray the amount of its own civil 
list, — such colony accepting this proposi- 
t;ion should be approved by the general 
Government, and exempted from all taxes 
except those for the regulation of com- 
merce. And to meet this proposition, a 
committee of twelve of the strongest mem- 
bers of the Virginia Legislature was ap- 
pointed, including Mr. Jefferson, who, as 
usual, was requested to prepare an answer ; 
which he did as follows : " These, my 
lord, are our sentiments on this important 
subject, which we offer only as an indi- 
vidual part of the whole empire. Final 



I06 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

determination we leave to the General 
Coneress now sittinor, before whom we 

O <-> ' 

shall lay the papers your lordship has com- 
municated to us. For ourselves, we have 
exhausted every mode of application which 
our invention could suggest as proper and 
promising. We have decently remon- 
strated with Parliament ; they have added 
new injuries to the old ; we have wearied 
our King with supplications ; he has not 
deigned to answer ; we have appealed to 
the native honor and justice of the British 
nation — their efforts in our favor have 
hitherto been ineffectual. What then re- 
mains to be done ? That we commit our 
injuries to the even-handed justice of that 
Being who doeth no wrong, earnestly be- 
seechino- Him to illuminate the councils, 
and prosper the endeavors of those to 
whom America hath confided her hopes ; 
that through their wise directions, we may 
again see reunited the blessings of liberty, 
prosperity, and harmony with Great Brit- 
ain." 

And this was reported to the house, 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 10/ 

though with some reluctance, by some 
members of the committee, and severely 
criticised in the house. But by the aid of 
Randolph, Mr. Jefferson carried it through 
the house. And it was thus fortunate that 
the Viroinia Legislature was in session, 
and the first to answer this overture by 
His Majesty, through his subtle and art- 
ful minister, Lord North. And equally 
fortunate, that it preceded Mr. Jefferson's 
going to the Continental Congress. Thus 
ended the regal assembly in Virginia. It 
adjourned on the 24th of June, 1774. 
Wherefore, now began the fulfilment of 
John Wilkes' prediction, made in the 
House of Parliament in the preceding 
February, in his condemnation of the British 
Government. " If you persist," said he, 
"in your resolution, all hope of reconcili- 
ation is extinct. The Americans will 
triumph. The whole continent of North 
America will be dismembered from Great 
Britain, and the wide arch of the raised 
empire fall. But I hope the just ven- 
geance of the people will overtake the 
authors of these pernicious counsels." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

JEFFERSON IN THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON, having now 
just passed his thirty-second year, 
leaves the dehberations of the Virginia 
Legislature for the first time, to supply the 
place of Peyton Randolph, who (though 
chairman of the Continental Congress) was 
unwilling to be absent from Virginia at this 
time. And Lord Dunmore was so much 
alarmed at the decision of the Virginia 
Legislature, that he fled for refuge on 
board one of the British ships of war, and 
declared he would never return, unless 
they closed in with the conciliatory propo- 
sition of Lord North. Nevertheless, he did 
return ; but they would never afterwards 
receive him nor respect his authority. 
It will now be proper to remark, that as 

early as 1773, at the meeting of the House 

108 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. IO9 

of Burgesses in Virginia, Mr. Jefferson 
conceived the idea, and matured the plan, 
with four of his associates, to form a Gen- 
eral Congress of delegates from all the 
colonies, as not only best, but, indeed, the 
only plan for resisting British oppression, 
and to establish and secure the constitu- 
tional rlohts of the American colonies. 

o 

And now, after a long course of events, Mr. 
Jefferson took his seat in that honorable 
body, the Colonial Congress, to supply the 
vacancy of Peyton Randolph, its chairman, 
on the 2 1 St of June, 1775. His fame had 
preceded him ; he brought with him a high 
reputation for literature, science, and talent 
for composidon. "Writings of his," says 
John Adams, " were handed about, remark- 
able for their peculiar felicity of expression." 
And again he said, " he seized upon my 
heart." And from all that we can learn, 
these feelings of Mr. Adams were duly 
appreciated and fully reciprocated by Mr. 
Jefferson. John Adams was seven years 
the senior of Jefferson, and John Hancock, 
who was the* president of the Continental 



no LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Congress after Randolph, was six years his 
senior, and Samuel Adams three, all of 
whom were then representatives of Massa- 
chusetts, from Boston. They were all 
genial spirits, of one heart and mind in the 
spirit of freedom and American indepen- 
dence. 

Six weeks had now elapsed since the 
Continental Congress met the second time, 
during which Mr. Jefferson felt it his duty 
to continue his seat in Virginia, as has 
been already stated, to meet, baffle, and 
defeat the design of Lord North, and, if 
possible, to effect a permanent union of all 
the colonies. And now, on the 24th of 
June, three days after he had taken his 
seat in General Congress, the committee 
which had been appointed to prepare a 
declaration of the causes of taking up 
arms brought in their report. And this 
report being disapproved by a majority of 
the house. It w^as recommitted ; and, singu-. 
lar to say, Mr. Jefferson and M^. Dickin- 
son were added to the committee. 

But what Is likewise remarkable, this 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. Ill 

committee requested Mr. Jefferson, who 
had been only three days a member of 
that body, to execute the draft. He mod- 
estly declined, but, on being pressed by 
strong solicitations, he consented. 

And so, havin-o- brousfht his draft from 
his study, he presented it to the committee, 
and, as was expected, it proved too strong 
for Mr. Dickinson, who was a celebrated 
Philadelphia lawyer, and a great politician ; 
also distinguished both as a writer and a 
speaker. And he not only wished, but did 
also his uttermost to effect, a reconciliation 
with the mother country under the propo- 
sition made by Lord North. Whence it 
was doubtless the expectation, if not the in- 
tention, that, by adding Messrs. Jefferson 
and Dickinson to the committee, the whole 
matter would be fully and ably discussed. 
But in this respect Mr. Dickinson had 
greatly the advantage, seeing Mr. Jefferson 
was not a public speaker ; and at that time, 
also, the public sympathy was, except in 
Virginia, strongly in Mr. Dickinson's favor. 
Whence, with his enthusiastic efforts and 



112 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

great ability as a speaker, he checked all 
progress for the time being. For Con- 
gress, believing Mr. Dickinson to be an 
honest man, and having this great tide of 
influence in his favor, showed him great 
indulgence, as they requested him to take 
the paper and remodel it according to his 
own views. This was vox popitli vox Dei, 
Wherefore he did so ; preparing a new 
statement, and retained only the last four 
paragraphs, and the last half of the pre- 
ceding one of Mr. Jefferson's draft. 

This statement of his, however, met with 
but little favor by a large minority of the 
house ; yet, for the sake of harmony, till 
they could do better, they were reconciled, 
and let it pass unanimously. And the vote 
having passed, and all further observation 
on it out of order ; yet Mr. Dickinson was 
so delighted, that he could not refrain from 
expressing his satisfaction ; and concluded, 
saying, " There is but one word, Mr. Presi- 
dent, in the paper which I disapprove, and 
that is the word Congress ;'' on which Ben 
Harrison rose, and said, " There is but one 



I 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. II3 

word In the paper, Mr. President, of which 
I approve, and that Is the word Coii- 
gressT It was, nevertheless, a great attain- 
ment. A unity was now formed, and 
thereby a soHd foundation was laid, on 
which to build that superstructure of the 
union of all the colonies, not only to refuse, 
but likewise to resist, the delusive scheme 
of Lord North, and ultimately to bring- 
about the same stand which had already 
been taken by Virginia. Wherefore, It is 
justly proper here to record, that the por- 
tion of Mr. Jefferson's draft which Mr. 
Dickinson retained in his draft, written by 
permission of Congcess to suit himself, and 
In which the word Congrress v/as all that he 
disapproved, must now receive attention. 
The following is a copy left by Mr. Jeffer- 
son of that return of his draft. " We are 
reduced to the alternative of choosing an 
unconditional submission to the tyranny of 
irritated ministers, or resistance by force. 
The latter is our choice. We have counted 
the cost of this contest, and find nothing so 
dreadful as voluntary slavery. Honor, jus- 

10* H 



114 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

tice, and humanity forbid us tamely to sur- 
render that freedom which we received 
from our gallant ancestors, and which our 
innocent posterity have a right to receive 
from us. We cannot endure the Infamy 
and guilt of resigning succeeding genera- 
tions to that wretchedness which Inevitably 
awaits them, If we basely entail hereditary 
bondage upon them. Our cause Is just. 
Our union Is perfect. Our Internal re- 
sources are great ; and, If necessary, foreign 
assistance Is undoubtedly attainable. We 
gratefully acknowledge, as signal Instances 
of the Divine favor towards us, that His 
providence would not permit us to be called 
into this severe controversy until we were 
grown up to our present strength, had been 
previously exercised In warlike operations, 
and possessed of the means of defending 
ourselves. With hearts fortified with these 
animating reflections, we most solemnly, 
before God and the world, declare, that, exert- 
ing the utmost energy of those powers which 
our beneficent Creator hath graciously be- 
stowed on us, the arms we have been com- 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. II5 

pelled by our enemies to assume, we will, 
in defiance of every hazard, with unabating 
firmness and perseverance, employ for the 
preservation of our liberties; being with 
one mind resolved to die freemen, rather 
than to live slaves. 

"Lest this declaration should disquiet the 
minds of our friends and fellow-subjects in 
any part of the empire, we assure them, that 
we mean not to dissolve that union which has 
so long and so happily subsisted between 
us, and which we sincerely wish to see re- 
stored ; necessity has not yet driven us into 
that desperate measure, or induced us to 
excite any other nation to war against them. 
We have not raised armies with ambitious 
designs of separating from Great Britain, 
and establishing independent states. We 
fight not for glory or for conquest. We 
exhibit to mankind the remarkable spectacle 
of a people attacked by unprovoked ene- 
mies, without any imputation, or even sus- 
picion of offence. They boast of their 
privileges and civilization, and yet proffer no 
milder conditions to us than servitude or 
death. 



Il6 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

''In our own native land, in defence of the 
freedom that is our birthright, and which 
we ever enjoyed until the late violation of 
it — for the protection of our property, ac- 
quired solely by the honest industry of our 
forefathers and ourselves, against violence 
actually offered, we have taken up arms. 
We shall lay them down when hostilities 
shall cease on the part of the aggressors, 
and all dano^er of their beinor renewed shall 
be removed, and not before. 

" With an humble confidence on the mer- 
cies of the Supreme and impartial Judge 
and Ruler of the universe, we most devoudy 
implore His divine goodness to protect us 
happily through this great conflict ; to dis- 
pose our adversaries to reconciliation on 
reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve the 
empire from the calamities of civil war." 

This declaration was published to the 
army by General Washington, and pro- 
claimed from the pulpit, with great so- 
lemnity, by the ministers of religion. 



CHAPTER IX. 

REPLY TO LORD NORTH's PROPOSITION. 

ON the 22d of July, (1775,) Congress 
took into consideration the cele- 
brated proposed conciliatory proposition of 
Lord North. It was a grave as well as a 
difficult question to settle, and now suf- 
ficient time had elapsed for it to have been 
thoroughly weighed, examined, and its true 
import seen. In a word, it was now not 
only proper, but absolutely necessary, that 
it should be met firmly, specifically, and 
absolutely. And to this end. Congress 
decided to make choice of a committee 
elected by ballot ; the number of votes 
which each received should decide his 
situation on the committee ; which resulted 
in the following order : Dr. Franklin, Mr. 
Jefiferson, John Adams, and Richard H. 

Lee. This settled the question of the fit- 

117 



Il8 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

test persons to perform this most arduous 
and difficult task. And it has ever been 
admitted that a stronger and more wise 
and judicious selection could not have been 
made. The answer which Mr. Jefferson 
had given to this proposition made by 
Lord North, when presented to the Vir- 
ginia Legislature by the British Governor, 
Dunmore, was doubtless well known ; and 
therefore, by his election as second on this 
committee, plainly manifested the feeling 
of Congress. But as a still further proof 
and confirmation of this, the committee 
chosen requested Mr. Jefferson to prepare 
the present report ; and he accordingly con- 
sented, and also, as was his practice, re- 
tained a copy thereof for his own use, as 
he did of all his reports, and the amend- 
ments or corrections, and therefore they 
form the principal part of this biographical 
sketch. The report written by Mr. Jeffer- 
son, and approved by the committee, was 
also adopted by Congress as follows : 

"That the colonies of America are entitled 
to the sole and exclusive privilege of giving 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. II9 

and granting their own money ; that this 
involves a rio^ht of deHberatlne" whether 
they will make any gift, for what purpose 
it shall be made, and what shall be its 
amount ; that it is a hio-h breach of this 
privilege, for any body of men, extraneous 
of their constitutions, to prescribe the pur- 
pose for which money shall be levied on 
them ; to take to themselves the authority 
of judging of their conditions, circum- 
stances, and situations ; and of determining 
the amount of the contributions to be levied ; 
and that, as the colonies possess a right 
of appropriating their gifts, so are they 
entitled, at all times, to inquire into their 
application, to see that they are not wasted 
among the venial and corrupt, for the pur- 
pose of undermining the civil rights of the 
givers, nor yet be diverted to the support 
of standing armies, inconsistent with free- 
dom, and subversive of their quiet. 

" To propose therefore, as this resolution 
does, that the moneys given by the colonies 
shall be subject to the disposal of Parlia- 
ment alone, is to propose that they shall 



120 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

relinquish this right of inquiry, and put it 
in the power of others to render their gifts 
ruinous, in proportion as they are hberal. 

*'That this privilege of giving or with- 
holding our moneys is an important barrier 
against the undue exertion of prerogative, 
which, if left altogether without control, 
may be exercised to our great oppression ; 
and all history shows how efficacious is its 
intercession for redress of grievances and 
re- establishment of rights, and how im- 
provident it would be to part with so 
powerful a mediator. 

"We are of opinion, that the proposi- 
tion contained in this resolution is un- 
reasonable and insidious. Unreasonable ; 
because, if we declare we accede to it, we 
declare, without reservation, we will pur- 
chase the favor of Parliament, not know- 
ing, at the same time, at what price they 
will please to estimate their favor. In- 
sidious ; because individual colonies having 
bid and bidden again, till they find the 
avidity of the seller too great for all their 
powers to satisfy, are then to return into 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 121 

opposition divided from dieir sister colonies, 
whom the minister will have previously de- 
tached, by a grant of easier terms, or by 
an artful procrastination of a definitive 
answer. 

''That the suspension of the exercise of 
their pretended power of taxation, being 
expressly made commensurate with the 
continuance of our gifts, these must be 
perpetual to make that so. Whereas no 
experience has shown that a gift of perpetual 
revenue secures a perpetual return of duty, 
or of kind disposition. On the contrary, the 
Parliament itself, wisely attentive to the 
observation, is in the established practice 
of granting its supplies from year to year 
only. 

" Desirous and determined as we are, 
to consider, in the most dispassionate view, 
every seeming advance towards a recon- 
ciliation made by the British Parliament, let 
our brethren of Britain reflect what would 
have been the sacrifice to men of free 
spirits, had even fair terms been proffered, 
as these insidious proposals were, with 



122 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

circumstances of insult or defiance. A 
proposition to give our money, accom- 
panied with large fleets and armies, seems 
addressed to our fears rather than to our 
freedom. With what patience could Britons 
have received articles of a treaty from any 
power on earth, when borne on the point 
of a bayonet by military plenipotentiaries ? 
We think the attempt unnecessary to raise 
upon us, by force or by threats, our pro- 
portional contributions to the common de- 
fence, when all know, and themselves ac- 
knowledge, we have fully contributed, 
whenever called upon to do so, in the 
character of freemen. 

"We are of the opinion it is not just 
that the colonies should be required to 
oblige themselves to other contributions, 
while Great Britian possesses a monopoly 
of their trade. This of itself lays them 
under heavy contribution. To demand, 
therefore, additional aids, in the form of a 
tax, is to demand the double of their equal 
proportion. If we contribute equally with 
other parts of the empire, let us equally 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I23 

with them enjoy free commerce with the 
whole world ; but while the restrictions on 
our trade shut to us the resources of wealth, 
is it just we should bear all other burdens 
equally with those to whom every resource 
is open ? 

" We conceive that the British Parlia- 
ment has no ricrht to intermeddle with our 
provisions for the support of civil govern- 
ment or administration of justice. The 
provisions we have made are such as 
please ourselves, and are agreeable to 
our own circumstances. They answer the 
substantial purposes of government and 
of justice ; and other purposes than these 
should not be answered. We do not mean 
that our people shall be burdened with 
oppressive taxes, to provide sinecures for- 
the idle or the wicked, under color of pro- 
vidine for a civil list. While Parliament 
pursue their plan of civil government with- 
in their own jurisdiction, we also hope to 
pursue ours without molestation. 

" We are of opinion the proposition is 
altogether unsatisfactory ; because it im- 



124 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ports only a suspension of the mode, not 
a renunciation of the pretended right to 
tax us ; because, too, it does not propose 
to repeal the several acts of Parliament, 
passed for the purposes of restraining the 
trade, and altering the form of government 
of one of our colonies ; extending the 
boundaries and changing the government 
of Quebec ; enlarging the jurisdiction of 
the courts of admiralty and vice-admiralty; 
taking from us the right of a trial by jury 
of the vicinage, in cases affecUng both life 
and property ; transporting us into other 
countries, to be tried for criminal oftences; 
exempting, by mock trial, the murderers of 
colonists from punishment; and quartering 
soldiers on us in times of profound peace. 
Nor do they renounce the power of sus- 
pending our own Legislatures, and legislat- 
ing for us themselves, in all cases whatso- 
ever. On the contrary, to show they mean 
no discontinuance of injury, they pass acts, 
at the very time of holding out this propo- 
sition, for restraining the commerce and 
fisheries of the Provinces of New Enrfand ; 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 125 

and for interdicting the trade of other 
colonies with all foreign nations, and with 
each other. This proves unequivocally 
they mean not to relinquish the exercise 
of indiscriminate legislation over us. 

" Upon the whole, this proposition seems 
to have been held up to the whole world 
to deceive It Into a belief that there was 
nothing in dispute between us but the 
mode of levying taxes ; and that the Parlia- 
ment having been now so good as to 
give up this, the colonies are unreason- 
able. If not perfectly satisfied. Whereas, 
In truth, our adversaries still claim a right 
of demanding, ad libitum, and of taxing 
us themselves, to the full amount of their 
demand. If we do comply with it. This 
leaves us without any thing we can call 
property; but, what Is of more Importance, 
and what. In this proposal, they keep out 
of sight, as If no such point was now In 
contest between us, they claim a right to 
alter our charters, and establish laws, and 
leave us without any security for our lives 
or liberties. 



126 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

''The proposition seems also to have 
been calculated, more particularly, to lull 
into fatal security our well-affected fellow- 
subjects on the other side of the water, 
till time should be given for the operation 
of those arms which a British minister 
pronounced would, instantaneously, re- 
duce the cowardly sons of America to un- 
reserved submission. But when the world 
reflects how inadequate to justice are these 
vaunted terms ; when it attends to the 
rapid and bold succession of injuries which 
during a course of eleven years have been 
aimed at the colonies ; when it reviews the 
pacific and respectful expostulations which 
during that whole time were the sole arms 
we opposed to them ; when it observes 
that our complaints were either not heard 
at all, or were answered with new and ac- 
cumulated injuries; when it recollects that 
the minister himself, on an early occasion, 
declared ' that he would never treat with 
America till he had brought her to his 
feet ; ' that an avowed partisan of ministry 
has, more lately, denounced against us the 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 12/ 

dreadful sentence, ' del enda est Carthago ;' 
and that this was done in presence of a 
British Senate, and being unreproved by 
them, must be taken to be their own senti- 
ments, especially as the purpose has already, 
in part, been carried into execution, by 
their treatment of Boston and burnincr of 
Charlestown ; when it considers the ereat 
armaments with which they have invaded 
us, and the circumstances of cruelty with 
which these have commenced and prosecu- 
ted hostilities ; when these things, we say, 
are laid together, and attentively con- 
sidered, can the world be deceived into an 
opinion that we are unreasonable ? or can 
it hesitate to believe, with us, that nothing 
but our own exertions may defeat the 
ministerial sentence of death or abject sub- 
mission ? " 

Mr. Jefferson having put to silence the 
ignorance of foolish men, and thoroughly 
unmasked the subtlety of the British Gov- 
ernment, in the scheme devised by Lord 
North, and thereby showed that an "honest 
man was the noblest work of God," all the 
American colonies were now brought to 



128 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

see more clearly their real state and con- 
dition, and to bring all further consider- 
ations of adjustment to a close, as it had 
been already done in Virginia ; and to 
establish that adjustment permanently by a 
declaration of independence, and establish 
a form of government commensurate with 
the true spirit of independence. 

On the ist of August, (1775,) Congress 
adjourned to meet again on the 5th of 
September. For what specific object is 
not mentioned. The time for which Mr. 
Jefferson was elected to serve now closed ; 
he had been in Congress but little over a 
month, and, although the youngest member 
thereof, having just passed his thirty-second 
year, was chosen next to the sage philoso- 
pher and statesman, Dr. Franklin, in the 
election of the committee to consider the 
proposals of Lord North, and by that com- 
mittee chosen to do that for which it had 
been constituted; while Franklin was twenty- 
three years his senior, and the first chosen 
on the committee, which exhibits an instance 
of superiority in Mr. Jefferson's ability not 
to be found in the pages of history. 



CHAPTER X. 

LETTERS TO A FRIEND. 

AFTER Mr. Jefferson's arduous and 
incessant labors, first in the Virginia 
Leoislature, and then in Cono-ress, his re- 
turn to his quiet and pleasant home, Monti- 
cello, was to him a most delightful change, 
— a rest to both body and mind, and, we 
may also add, rest to his soul, for having 
discharged so ably and faithfully his duty 
towards God and his duty towards his 
neighbor. And now, being freed from 
those weighty^ responsibilities and cares, 
his calm reflections would naturally turn to 
the past, the present, and the future, to un- 
fold itself in its true character. This is 
manifest from a letter which he penned on 
the 25th of August, 1775, just four weeks 
from the adjournment of Congress, to his 

old friend from whom, in his youth, he had 
I 129 



130 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

received so much valuable instruction, and 
who, by reason of the troubles in Virginia, 
had thouorht it safe for him to return to 
Enoland. 

" Dear Sir: — I am sorry the situation of 
our country should render it not eligible to 
you to remain longer in it. I hope the re- 
turninor wisdom of Great Britain will, ere 
long, put an end to this unnatural contest. 
There may be people to whose tempers 
and dispositions contention Is pleasing, and 
who, therefore, wish a continuance of con- 
fusion ; but to me it is, of all states but one, 
the most horrid. My first wish is a resto- 
ration of our just rights; my second, a re- 
turn of the happy period when, consistently 
with duty, I may withdraw myself totally 
from the public stage, and pass the rest of 
my days In domestic ease and tranquillity, 
banishing every desire of ever hearing 
what passes in the world. Perhaps (for 
the latter adds considerably to the warmth 
of the former wish), looking with fondness 
towards a reconciliation with Great Britain, 
I cannot help hoping you may be able to 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I3I 

contribute towards expediting this good 
work. I think it must be evident to your- 
self, that the ministry have been deceived 
by their officers on this side of the water, 
who (for what purpose, I cannot tell) have 
constantly represented the American oppo- 
sition as that of a small faction, in which 
the body of the people took little part. 
This, you can inform them, of your own 
knowledge, is untrue. They have taken it 
into their heads, too, that we are cowards, 
and shall surrender at discretion to an 
armed force. The past and future opera- 
tions of the war must confirm or undeceive 
them on that head. I wish they were 
thoroughly and minutely acquainted with 
every circumstance relative to America, as 
it exists in truth. I am persuaded this 
would go far towards disposing them to 
reconciliation. Even those in Parliament 
who are called friends to America, seem to 
know nothing of our real determinations. 
I observe they pronounced in the last 
Parliament diat the Congress of 1774 did 
not mean to insist rigorously on the terms 



132 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

they held out, but kept something in reserve 
to give up; and in fact, that they would give 
up everything but the article of taxation. 
Now the truth is far from this, as I can 
affirm, and put my honor to the assertion. 
Their continuance in this error may, per- 
haps, produce very ill consequences. The 
Congress stated the lowest terms they 
thought possible to be accepted, in order to 
convince the world they were not unreason- 
able. They gave up the monopoly and regu- 
lation of trade, and all acts of Parliament 
prior to 1764, leaving to British generosity 
to render these, at some future time, as 
easy to America as the interest of Britain 
would admit. But this was before blood 
was spilt. I cannot affirm, but have reason 
to think, these terms would not now be ac- 
cepted. I wish no false sense of honor, no 
ignorance of our real intentions, no vain 
hope that partial concessions of right will 
be accepted, may induce the ministry to 
trifle with accommodation, till it shall be 
out of their power ever to accommodate. 
If, indeed, Great Britain, disjoined from her 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I33 

colonies, be a match for the most potent 
nations of Europe, with the colonies thrown 
into their scale, they may go security. But 
if they are not assured of this, it would be 
certainly unwise, by trying the event of 
another campaign, to risk our accepting a 
foreign aid, which, perhaps, may not be 
obtainable, but on condition of everlasting 
avulsion from Great Britain. This would 
be thought a hard condition to those who 
still wish for reunion with their parent 
country. I am sincerely one of those, and 
would rather be in dependence on Great 
Britain, properly limited, than on any nation 
upon earth, or than on no nation. But I 
am one of those, too, who, rather than sub- 
mit to the rights of legislating for us, as- 
sumed by the British Parliament, and which 
late experience has shown they will so 
cruelly exercise, would lend my hand to 
sink the whole island in the ocean. 

" If undeceiving the minister, as to mat- 
ters of fact, may change his disposition, it 
will perhaps be in your power, by assist- 
ing to do this, to render service to the 



134 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

whole empire at the most critical time 
certainly that it has ever seen. Whether 
Britain shall continue the head of the 
greatest empire on earth, or shall return 
to her original station in the political scale 
of Europe, depends, perhaps, on the resolu- 
tions of the succeedinor winter. God send 
they may be wise, and salutary for us all. 
I shall be glad to hear from you as often 
as you may be disposed to think of things 
here. You may be at liberty, I expect, to 
communicate some things, consistently with 
your honor and the duties you will owe to 
a protecting nadon. Such communication 
among individuals may be mutually bene- 
ficial to the contending parties. On this 
or any future occasion, if I affirm to you 
any facts, your knowledge of me will en- 
able you to decide on their credibility ; if I 
hazard opinions on the dispositions of men, 
or other speculative points, you can only 
know they are my opinions. My best wishes 
for your felicity attend you wherever you 
go; and believe me to be, assuredly, your 
friend and servant." 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I35 

Mr. Jefferson was again elected by the 
Virginia Legislature, in August, 1775, to 
the Continental Congress, to meet in Phila- 
delphia on the 5th of September. But as 
nothing occurred or was done to call forth 
the productions of his pen, we have no 
history of their proceedings at that session. 
But whilst there, he again addressed, on 
November the 29th, the following letter to 
his much revered English friend : 

" Dear Sir. ... It is an immense mis- 
fortune to the whole empire, to have a 
king of such a disposition at such a time. 
We are told, and everything proves it true, 
that he is the bitterest enemy we have. 
His minister is able, and that satisfies me 
that ignorance or wickedness somewhere 
controls him. In an earlier part of this 
contest, our petitions told him that from 
our king there was but one appeal. The 
admonition was despised, and that appeal 
forced on us. To undo his empire, he has 
but one truth more to learn — that after 
colonies have drawn the sword, there is 
but one step more they can take. That step 
is now pressed upon us by the measures 



136 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

adopted, as If they were afraid we would 
not take it. Believe me, dear sir, there is 
not in the British empire a man who more 
cordially loves a union with Great Britain 
than I do. But, by the God that made me, 
I will cease to exist, before I yield to a con- 
nection on such terms as the British Parlia- 
ment propose ; and in this I think 1 speak 
the sentiments of America. We want 
neither inducement nor power to declare 
and assert a separation. It is will alone 
which is wanting ; and that is growing 
apace under the fostering hand of our king. 
One bloody campaign will probably decide 
everlastingly our future course. I am sorry 
to find a bloody campaign is decided on. 
If our winds and waters should not com- 
bine to rescue their shores from slavery, 
and General Howe's reinforcement should 
arrive in safety, we have hopes he will be 
inspired to come out of Boston and take 
another drubbing ; and we must drub him 
soundly, before the sceptered tyrant will 
know we are not mere brutes to crouch 
under his hand, and kiss the rod with which 
he deio-ns to scourtre us. Yours, etc." 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I37 

The spirit and character of this com- 
munication shows m.ost clearly and con- 
clusively that a mighty change had taken 
place in the state of affairs and the con- 
ditions of our relation with the mother 
country, from the 25th of August and 29th 
of November, 1775. In which time Jeffer- 
son's reply to Lord North's proposition, 
and adopted by Congress on the ist of 
August, had excited the British ministry, 
and Parliament of Great Britain, to their 
highest indignation and spirit of revenge ; 
and which was being met by the American 
colonies wath a stern resolution to resist. 
Hence there is a corresponding marked 
difference in the first and the last letter of 
Mr. Jefferson's in that brief space of time, 
as evinced in the spirit and character of 
his first and second letters ; but of which 
we have no history given concerning it. 

Although the popular Convention of 
Virginia, in June, 1775, rejected the propo- 
sition of Lord North, declarinor itself in- 
dependent of Great Britain, and likewise 
providing an armed force for the defence 



138 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

of the colony ; yet they took no measures 
for its government beyond that of its 
legislature. And this being assembled in 
Williamsburg, on the 6th of May, 1776, 
after electinor their delegates to Coneress, 
among whom was Thomas Jefferson, they 
likewise took action to establish an inde- 
pendent form of government. This sub- 
ject was brought forward by Col. Archibald 
Cary, a man of herculean stature and force 
of character, on the 15th of May. Where- 
upon a committee of thirty-four was ap- 
pointed, including Col. George Mason, 
who was requested to draw^ up a declara- 
tion of rights, with a preamble and con- 
stitution for Virginia. 

Now, although Mr. Jefferson had taken 
his seat, with the other delegates, in the 
Colonial Congress; yet looking upon Vir- 
ginia as the stronghold of American Inde- 
pendence, and not knowing exactly how 
the Legislature was progressing, he drew 
up a declaration of rights and constitution 
for Virginia, which he transmitted to his 
friend George Wythe. But it did not 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1 39 

arrive before the constitution prepared by 
Col. George Mason had passed, and was 
adopted by the committee of the whole, it 
being- then too late for further action. 
Nevertheless, Jefferson's preamble and 
some of his modifications were adopted ; 
which accounts for the resemblance found 
therein to the Declaration of Independence. 
The constitution and declaration of Amer- 
ican rights in Virginia were adopted unan- 
imously on the 29th of June, 1776, and was 
thus the first establishment of self-govern- 
ment, by a written compact, in the western 
continent, and perhaps in the whole world. 
And it likewise formed a model for all the 
other states, as they successively recovered 
themselves from the present monarchy. 

This was a capital success, and did much 
towards securing the independence of all 
the colonies, and the formation of state 
governments. It was so regarded by Mr. 
Jefferson at the time; as we may justly 
infer from a letter which he wrote in 1824, 
about two years before his death, to Major 
John Cartwright, an English friend, who 
had left the English service previous to 



T40 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

1774, and become a warm advocate for the 
American colonies. "Virginia, of which I 
am myself a native and resident, was not 
only the first of the states, but, I believe I 
may say, the first of the nations of the 
earth which assembled its wise men" peace- 
ably together, to form a fundamental con- 
stitution, to commit it to writing and place 
it among their archives, where every one 
should be free to appeal to its text. But 
this act was very imperfect. The other 
states as they proceeded successfully to 
the same work, made successive improve- 
ments, and several of them, still further cor- 
rected by experience, have, by conventions, 
still further amended their first forms. My 
own state has gone so far with its premiere 
cbauche ; but it is now proposing to call a 
convention for amendment. Among the 
other improvements, I hope they will adopt 
the subdivision of our counties into wards. 
The former may be estimated at an average 
of twenty-four miles square; the latter 
should be about six miles square each, and 
would answer to the hundreds of your 
Saxon Alfred. In each of these might be : 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I4I 

I. An elementary school. 2. A company 
of militia with its officers. 3. A justice of 
the peace and constable. 4. Each ward 
should take care of their own poor. 5. 
Their own roads. 6. Their own police. 
7. Elect within themselves one or more 
jurors to attend the courts of justice. 
And 8. Give in at their Folk-house, their 
votes for all functionaries reserved to their 
election. Each ward would thus be a 
small republic within itself, and every man 
in the state would thus become an acting 
member of the common ofovernment, trans- 
acting in person a great portion of its 
rights and duties, subordinate indeed, yet 
important and entirely within his com- 
petence. The wit of man cannot devise a 
more solid basis for a free, durable, and 
well administered republic." 

In this connection it is proper to state 
also, that the colony of Virginia, while de- 
claring itself an independent state, and 
having appointed a committee to form a 
constitution for its own government, like- 
wise adopted the following resolution of in- 
structions to her delegates in Congress : 



142 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

''Resolved, unanimously ,\}iS2X the delegates 
appointed to represent this colony in Gen- 
eral Congress, be instructed to propose to 
that respectable body to declare the united 
colonies free and independent states, ab- 
solved from all allegiance to or dependence 
upon the Crown or Parliament of Great 
Britain ; and that they give the assent of 
this colony to such declaration, and to 
whatever measures may be thought proper 
and necessary by the Congress, for forming 
foreicrn alliances, and a confederation of the 
colonies, at such time, place, or manner as to 
them shall seem best. Provided, that the 
power of forming government for, and the 
regulation of, the internal concerns of each 
colony, be left to the respective colonial 
Legislatures." This was highly com- 
mended, and superinduced other colonies 
to take the same step. 

During this time. May, 1776, the Vir- 
ginia deleoates in Congress were not idle, 
nor slow to advance the same views, and 
in the same spirit, as were expressed in the 
Virginia resolutions. And the intelligence 
of this auspicious document was received 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I43 

with a feeling of approbation throughout 
the colonies by a large majority, and 
became the slo^nal for like manifestations 
by other legislatures ; wherefore, a majority 
of the representatives was soon Instructed 
to do likewise. Nevertheless, a large mi- 
nority still clung to the supposed ties which 
bound them in conscience and honor to the 
parent government. But most opportunely 
for removing this, the parent government, 
by an act of Parliament, declared the colo- 
nies In a state of rebellion, and out of the 
protection of the British Crown. Whence 
they now plainly perceived that Great Brit- 
ain had herself declared them indepen- 
dent, and no longer under her protection. 
Wherefore, the colonies were all brought 
to see, and think, and feel that their only 
safety was by a union and combination 
amonof themselves. 

Now, by a remarkable coincidence. Con- 
gress, on the 15th of May (the same day 
on which the Virginia Legislature adopted 
her Instructions to her delegates), recom- 
mended the several colonies to establish 
independent governments of their own. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

ON the 28th of May, upon motion of 
Mr. Jefferson, Congress resolved 
" that an animated address be pubHshed, to 
impress the minds of the people with the 
necessity of now stepping forward to save 
their country, their freedom, and their 
property." Being appointed chairman of 
the committee upon this resolution, he pre- 
pared the address, which was conceived 
and expressed in a manner that carried 
conviction and courage to the breast of 
every man who had a just conception of 
the sad state of affairs. The delegates 
from Virginia were the first to receive in- 
structions, which arrived early in June ; and 
they immediately held a conference to ar- 
range the preliminaries for acting upon 

them. Richard H. Lee, being the oldest in 

144 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I45 

the delegation, and happily endowed with 
extraordinary powers of eloquence, was 
designated to make the introductory mo- 
tion, and the yth of June was ordered 
as the day. Accordingly, on that day, he 
rose from his seat and moved that Con- 
gress should declare, "That these united 
colonies are and of right ought to be free 
and independent states; that they are ab- 
solved from all alleo^iance to the British 
crown, and that all political connection be- 
tween them and the state of Great Britain 
is and ought to be totally dissolved ; that 
measures should be immediately taken lor 
procuring the assistance of foreign powers, 
and a confederation formed to bind the 
colonies more closely together." 

The proposition was deferred to the next 
day, when the members were ordered to 
attend punctually at ten o'clock. 

And so, on Saturday, June 8th, Con- 
gress proceeded to take the subject into 
consideration, and it was referred to the 
committee of the whole, into which they 
resolved themselves during that day, and 

i^ K 



146 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Monday the loth was spent in warm and 
vehement debates. 

Messrs. Dickinson and Wilson, of Penn- 
sylvania, Robert Livingston, of New York, 
and Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, 
and others opposed it. Mr. Jefferson, John 
and Samuel Adams, Lee, Wythe, and others, 
supported it ; and it was very fully and 
ably discussed pro and con ; and the heads 
of the arguments were preserved by Mr. 
Jefferson, which, though interesting at that 
time, can be of little interest at the pres- 
ent. But from the strength of opposition, 
it was deemed impolitic to press it at that 
time. Nevertheless, that this might occa- 
sion as little delay as possible, a committee 
was appointed to prepare a Declaration of 
Independence, on the same plan as was 
adopted to meet the proposition of Lord 
North, viz., those receiving the highest 
number of votes ; and of these, the one 
havinor the hiofhcst to be the head of the 
committee. Mr. Jefferson having the high- 
est, was the head, and the others in order 
were John Adams, Dr. Franklin, Roger 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I47 

Sherman, and Robert Livingston. The 
committee unanimously soHcited Mr. Jeffer- 
son to prepare the draft of the Declara- 
tion. 

Jefferson drew it accordingly, but before 
submitting it to the committee, he commu- 
nicated it separately to Dr. Franklin and 
Mr. Adams, with a view to avail himself 
of the benefit of their criticisms. And they 
approved it, but suggested two or three 
verbal alterations, that might soften some- 
what the original phraseology. The com- 
mittee unanimously approved it, and it was 
reported to Congress on Friday, the 28th 
of June, when it was read and ordered to 
lie on the table. 

On Monday, the ist of July, the house 
resolved itself into a committee of the 
whole, and resumed the consideration of 
the preliminary motion, viz.. To declare the 
united colonies free and independent 
states, etc. It was debated again through 
the day, and finally carried in the affirm- 
ative by the votes of New Hampshire, 
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 



148 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North 
Carolina, and Georgia; South Carolina and 
Pennsylvania voted against it. Delaware 
had but two members^ present, and they 
were divided. The delegates from New 
York declared they were for it themselves, 
and were assured their constituents were 
for it, but that their instructions having 
been drawn near a twelvemonth before, 
when reconciliation was still the general 
object, they were enjoined by them to do 
nothing which should impede that object. 
They, therefore, thought themselves not 
justifiable in voting on either side, and 
asked leave to withdraw from the question ; 
which was granted them. Then the com- 
mittee rose and reported their resolution 
to the house. 

Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina, then 
requested the determination might be put 
off to the next day, as he believed his col- 
leagues, though they disapproved of the 
resolution, would then join in it for the 
sake of unanimity. The ultimate decision 
by the house was accordingly postponed 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I49 

to the next clay, July 2cl, when it was again 
moved, and South Carolina concurred in 
voting for it ; and, in the meantime, a third 
member from Delaware in favor of it ar- 
rived, and turned the vote of Delaware for 
it ; and members of a different sentiment 
from Pennsylvania also attending that 
morning, changed her vote. So, finally, 
the members from New York, though for 
it, were allowed to withdraw, for the want 
of instructions to do so. The Convention 
of New York on the 9th of July approved 
of it. 

Congress proceeded on the 2d of July 
to consider the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, which had been reported on the 
28th of June and ordered to lie on the 
table, The debates were again renewed 
with great violence, even greater than 
before; but in these Mr. Jefferson took no' 
part. Among the advocates for the declara- 
tion, Mr. Jefferson himself considered John 
Adams the ablest and the best ; and thirty 
years after he called him "our Colossus on 
the floor. Not graceful nor elegant, not 
13* 



150 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

always fluent in his public address, he yet 
came out with a power, both of thought 
and expression, which moved us from our 
seats." And he assigned to John Adams 
the pre-eminent '$>\2X\or\, prhmis inter pm^es. 
There were a few slio^ht alterations made 
and some parts stricken out, principally 
those having reference to African slavery ; 
reflecting upon the British Government for 
introducing it; and those interested with 
them in the slave - trade, as also those 
wishing that traffic to be perpetuated. And 
w^hile these changes were being made, the 
good-humored Dr. Franklin, sitting near 
Mr. Jeft'erson, and seeing him agonized 
under the strictures, comforted him with 
the following anecdote. 

" I have made it a rule, whenever it is in 
my power, to avoid becoming the draughts- 
man of papers to be reviewed by a public 
body. I took my lesson from an incident 
which I will relate to you. When I was a 
journeyman printer, one of my companions, 
an apprentice hatter, having served out his 
time, was about to open a shop for himself. 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I5I 

His first concern was to have a handsome 
sign-board, with a proper inscription. He 
composed it in these words, ' John Thomp- 
son, hattei% makes and sells hats for ready 
money' with the figure of the hat subjoined. 
But he thouofht he would submit it to his 
friends for their amendments. 

*' The first he showed it to, thought the 
word hatter tautologous, because followed 
by the words makes hats, which shows he 
was a hatter ; it was struck out. The next 
observed that the word snakes might as 
well be omitted, because his customers 
would not care who made the hats ; if good, 
and to their minds, they would buy, by 
whomsoever made. He struck it out. A 
third said he thought the words for ready 
7noney were useless, as it was not the cus- 
tom of the place to sell on credit ; every 
one who purchased expected to pay. They 
were parted with, and the inscription now 
stood, 'John Thompson sells hats.' 'Sells 
hats!' says his next friend; 'Why, nobody 
will expect you to give them away. What 
then is the use of the word?' It was 



152 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Stricken out, and hats followed, the ratHer, 
as there was one painted on the board ; so 
his inscription was reduced ultimately to 
'John Thompson,' with the figure of the hat 
subjoined." 

Mr. Jefferson kept a copy of the original 
draft, as also of all the changes and amend- 
ments, July 4th, 1776. Yet it is useless to 
give any of them. I think it proper to give 
the original draft, as written by Mr. Jeffer- 
son, also approved by all the committee, 
and reported to the house. The following 
is as it came from their hands. 

The Declaradon of Independence as it 
was written by Thomas Jefferson, and 
unanimously approved by the committee. 
Whereupon it was reported to Congress 
on Friday, the 28th of June, and ordered to 
be laid on the table. 

"When, in the course of human events, 
it becomes necessary for one people to dis- 
solve the political bands which have con- 
nected them with another, and to assume, 
among the powers of the earth, the sepa- 
rate and equal station to which the laws of 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I53 

nature and of nature's God entitle them, a 
decent respect to the opinions of mankind 
requires that they should declare the causes 
which impel them to the separation. 

" We hold these truths to be self-evident : 
that all men are created equal ; that they 
are endowed by their Creator with inherent 
and unalienable rights ; that among these 
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness. That to secure these rights, govern- 
ments are instituted amono- men, deriving 
their just powers from the consent of the 
governed ; that whenever any form of gov- 
ernment becomes destructive of these ends, 
it is the right of the people to alter or 
abolish it, and to institute new government, 
laying its foundation on such principles, 
and organizing its powers in such form, as 
to them shall seem most likely to effect 
their safety and happiness. Prudence, in- 
deed, will dictate that governments long 
established should not be changed for light 
and transient causes ; and accordingly all 
experience hath shown that mankind are 
more disposed to suffer, while evils are suf- 



154 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ferable, than to right themselves by abolish- 
ing the forms to which they are accustomed. 
But when a long train of abuses and usur- 
pations, begun at a distinguished period, 
and pursuing invariably the same object, 
evinces a design to reduce them under 
absolute despotism, it is their right, it is 
their duty, to throw off such government, 
and to provide new guards for their future 
security. 

" Such has been the patient sufferance 
of these colonies ; and such is now the ne- 
cessity which constrains them to expunge 
their former systems of government. The 
history of the present King of Great Brit- 
ain is a history of unremitting injuries and 
usurpations, among which appears no soli- 
tary fact to contradict the uniform tenor 
of the rest, but all have in direct object 
the establishment of an absolute tyranny 
over these states. To prove this, let facts 
be submitted to a candid world, for the 
truth of which we pledge a faith yet un- 
sullied by falsehood. 

" He has refused his assent to laws the 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I55 

most wholesome and necessary for the 
pubHc good. 

" He has forbidden his governors to pass 
laws of Immediate and pressing Import- 
ance, unless suspended in their operation, 
till his assent should be obtained ; and 
when so suspended, he has utterly neg- 
lected to attend to them. 

" He has refused to pass other laws for 
the accommodation of large districts of 
people, unless those people would re- 
linquish the right of representation In the 
legislature — a right inestimable to them, 
and formidable to tyrants only. 

"He has called together legislative bodies 
at places unusual, uncomfortable, and dis- 
tant from the depository of their public 
records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing 
them into compliance with his measures. 

" He has dissolved representative houses 
repeatedly and continually, for opposing, 
with manly firmness, his Invasions on the 
rights of the people. 

" He has refused, for a long time after 
such dissolutions, to cause others to be 



156 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

elected ; whereby the legislative powers, 
incapable of annihilation, have returned to 
the people at large, for their exercise ; the 
state remaining, in the meantime, exposed 
to all the dangers of invasion from with- 
out, and convulsions within. 

" He has endeavored to prevent the 
population of these states ; for that pur- 
pose obstructing the laws for naturaliza- 
tion of foreigners, refusing to pass others 
to encourage their migration hither, and 
raising the conditions of new appropria- 
tions of lands. 

" He has suffered the administration of 
justice totally to cease in some of these 
states, by refusing his assent to laws for 
establishing judiciary powers. 

"He has made our judges dependent on 
his will alone for the tenure of their offices, 
and the amount and payment of their 
salaries. 

" He has erected a multitude of new 
offices, by a self-assumed power, and sent 
hither sv/arms of new officers to harass 
our people, and eat out their substance. 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I57 

" He has kept among us, In times of 
peace, standing armies and ships of war 
without the consent of our legislatures. 

" He has affected to render the military 
independent of, and superior to, the civil 
power. 

" He has combined with others to sub- 
ject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our 
constitution, and unacknowledged by our 
laws ; eivinor his assent to their acts of 
pretended legislation for quartering large 
bodies of armed troops among us : for 
protecting them, by a mock trial, from 
punishment for any murders which they 
should commit on the inhabitants of these 
states ; for cutting off our trade with all 
parts of the world ; for imposing taxes on 
us without our consent ; for depriving us 
of the benefits of trial by jury ; for trans- 
porting us beyond seas, to be tried for 
pretended offences ; for abolishing the free 
system of English laws in a neighboring 
province ; establishing therein an arbitrary 
ofovernment, and enlargflng^ Its boundaries, 
so as to render it at once an example and 
14 



158 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

fit instrument for Introducing the same 
absolute rule Into these states ; for taking 
away our charters, abolishing our most 
valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, 
the forms of our orovernments ; for sus- 
pending our own legislatures, and de- 
claring themselves invested with power to 
legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

" He has abdicated crovernment here, 
withdrawing his governors, and declaring 
us out of his allegiance and protection. 

*' He has plundered our seas, ravaged 
our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed 
the lives of our people. 

*^ He is at this time transporting large 
armies of foreign mercenaries to complete 
the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, 
already begun with circumstances of cruelty 
and perfidy, unworthy the head of a civil- 
ized nation. 

*' He has constrained our fellow-citizens, 
taken captive on the high seas, to bear 
arms against their country, to become the 
executioners of their friends and brethren, 
or to fall themselves by their hands. 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1 59 

'• He has endeavored to brlncr on the 
inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless 
Indian savages, whose known rule of war- 
fare is an undistinguished destruction of all 
ages, sexes, and conditions of existence. 

" He has Incited treasonable insurrec- 
tions of our fellow-citizens, with the allure- 
ments of forfeiture and confiscation of our 
property. 

'' He has urged cruel war against human 
nature itself, violating its most sacred 
rights of life and liberty, in the persons of 
a distant people who never offended him ; 
captivating and carrying them into slavery 
in another hemisphere, or to incur miser- 
able death in their transportation thither. 
This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of 
Infidel powers, is the warfare of the CJuis- 
tiaii king of Great Britain. Determined 
to keep open a market where men should 
be bought and sold, he has prostituted 
his negative for suppressing every legisla- 
tive attempt to prohibit or to restrain this 
execrable commerce. 

" And that this assemblage of horrors 



l60 - LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

mieht want no fact of distinoulshed die, he 
is now exciting those very people to rise 
in arms among us, and to purchase that 
Hberty, of which he has deprived them, by 
murdering the people on whom he also 
obtruded them — thus paying off former 
crimes committed against the liberties of 
one people, with crimes which he urges 
them to commit against the lives of another. 

" In every stage of these oppressions, 
we have petitioned for redress in the most 
humble terms. Our repeated petitions 
have been answered only by repeated 
injuries. 

" A prince, whose character is thus 
marked by every act which may define a 
tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a people 
who mean to be free. Future ages will 
scarcely believe that the hardiness of one 
man adventured, within the short compass 
of twelve years only, to lay a foundation 
so broad and so undisguised for tyranny 
over a people fostered and fixed in prin- 
ciples of freedom. 

" Nor have we been wanting in attentions 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. l6l 

to our British brethren. We have warned 
them, from time to time, of attempts by 
their legislature to extend a jurisdiction 
over these our states. We have reminded 
them of the circumstances of our migra- 
tion and settlement here ; no one of which 
could warrant so strange a pretension ; 
that these were effected at the expense of 
our own blood and treasure, unassisted by 
the wealth or the strength of Great Britain ; 
that in constituting, indeed, our several 
forms of government, we had adopted one 
common king, thereby laying a foundation 
for perpetual league and amity with them ; 
but that submission to their Parliament 
was no part of our constitution ; nor ever 
in idea, if history may be credited. And 
we appeal to their native justice and 
magnanimity, as well as to the ties of our 
common kindred, to disavow these usurpa- 
tions, which were likely to interrupt our 
connection and correspondence. 

''They, too, have been deaf to the voice 
of justice and consanguinity, and when occa- 
sions have been given them, by the regular 

14* L 



l62 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

course of their laws, of removing- from their 
councils the disturbers of our harmony, 
they have, by their free election, re-estab- 
lished them in power. At this very time, 
too, they are permitting their chief magis- 
trate to send over not only soldiers of our 
common blood, but Scotch and foreign 
mercenaries to invade and destroy us. 

''These facts have given the last stab to 
agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids 
us to renounce forever these unfeeling 
brethren. We must endeavor to forget 
our former love for them, and hold them, 
as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies 
in war, in peace friends. 

" We micrht have been a free and a 
great people together ; but a communica- 
tion of grandeur, and of freedom, it seems, 
is below their dignity. Be it so, since they 
will have it. The road to happiness and to 
glory is open to us too. We will tread it 
apart from them, and acquiesce in the 
necessity which denounces our eternal 
separation. 

"We, therefore, the representatives of 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 163 

the United States of America, in General 
Congress assembled, do, in the name and 
by the authority of the good people of 
these states, reject and renounce all alle- 
giance and subjection to the kings of 
Great Britain, and all others who may, 
hereafter, claim by, through, or under them. 
We utterly dissolve all political connection 
which may heretofore have subsisted be- 
tween us and the people or Parliament of 
Great Britain : and finally, we do assert and 
declare these colonies to be free and inde- 
pendent states, and that as free and inde- 
pendent states., they have full power to 
levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, 
establish commerce, and to do all other 
acts and things which independent states 
may of right do. And for the support of 
this declaration, we mutually pledge to 
each other our lives, our fortunes, and our 
sacred honor." 

This is a copy of the original draft of 
Jefferson's declaration, and unanimously 
approved by the committee ; and most 
ably defended by John Adams, to whom 



164 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Jefferson, in 1823, wrote thus: "The gen- 
eration which commences a revolution 
rarely completes it. Habituated from their 
infancy to passive submission of body and 
mind to their kings and priests, they are 
not qualified, when called on, to think and 
provide for themselves ; and their inexpe- 
rience, their ignorance, and bigotry, make 
them instruments often, in the hands of the 
Bonapartes and Iturbides, to defeat their 
own rights and purposes. This is the 
present situation of Europe and Spanish 
America. 

" But it is not desperate. The light which 
has been shed on mankind by the art of 
printing, has eminently changed the con- 
dition of the world. As yet, that light has 
dawned on the middling classes only of the 
men in Europe ; the kings and the rabble, 
of equal ignorance, have not yet received 
its rays ; but it continues to spread, and 
while printing is preserved, it can no more 
recede than the sun return on his course. 
A first attempt to recover the right of self- 
government may fail, so may a second, a 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 165 

third, etc. But as a younger and more in- 
structed race comes on, the sentiment be- 
comes more and more intuitive, and a 
fourth, a fifth, or some subsequent one of 
the ever-renewed attempts, will ultimately 
succeed. In France, the first effort was 
defeated by Robespierre, the second by 
Bonaparte, the third by Louis XVIII. and 
his holy allies ; another is yet to come, and 
all Europe, Russia excepted, has caught the 
spirit ; and all will attain representative 
government, more or less perfect." 



CHAPTER XII. 

JEFFERSON EFFECTS FURTHER REFORMS. 

WITH the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence was accomplished the great 
object for which Mr. Jefferson was induced 
to leave the Legislature of Virginia, and 
become a member of the Continental 
Congress. And it is always pleasant to 
return home when the object for which 
home was left shall have been accom- 
plished. And so now he signified to the 
Virginia Legislature his determination to 
return. Nevertheless, they re-elected him 
for another term. But on the receipt of this 
intelligence, though gratifying as it was to 
be thus honored, he immediately addressed 
another letter to the Legislature, adhering 
to his original resolution, as follows : " I 
am sorry the situation of my domestic 
affairs renders it indispensably necessary 

1 66 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 167 

that I should solicit the substitution of some 
other person here in my room," etc. This 
was a good and sufficient reason. But in 
his private memoranda he adds, " I knew 
that our Legislature, under the regal 
government, had many very vicious points 
which urgently required reformation ; and 
I thought I could be of more use in for- 
warding that work. I therefore returned 
from my seat in Congress,"etc. 

Whence in this private memoranda we 
have a powerful historical reason for re- 
signing his seat in Congress, and his re- 
turning to Virginia. It evinces most clearly 
his distinctiveness and true patriotic charac- 
ter as a statesman and politician. As the 
seeds of liberty and Independence were 
first sown In Virginia, and the first-fruits 
matured and gathered there, It was there 
also that It should be preserved and culti- 
vated with the greatest care. Whence It 
was for this reason, doubtless, that Mr. 
Jefferson thought, or saw, as he expressed 
it in his memoranda, " that the laboring 
Oar was really at home." 



l68 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

This view of Jefferson's character was 
also corroborated by the following incident, 
viz., the singular mark of distinction con- 
ferred on him by Congress. He had been 
absent from Philadelphia but a few days, 
when he received the appointment of 
Congress to France, in conjunction with 
Dr. Franklin, to negotiate treaties of 
alliance and commerce with that oovern- 

o 

ment. 

Silas Deane, then in France acting as 
agent for procuring military supplies, and 
for sounding the disposition of that govern- 
ment towards America, was joined with 
them in this commission. This appoint- 
ment was made on the last day of Sep- 
tember, 1776, and more importance was 
attached to the successful issue of this 
transaction than to any other yet meditated. 
But this he also declined for the reasons 
before stated. Jefferson had not yet at- 
tained the middle of his thirty-fourth year, 
when he retired from Concrress to his seat 

o 

in the Virginia Legislature, from which he 
had been absent about nine months. And 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 169 

although the youngest in Congress except 
one, he had achieved a very high and 
honorable character as a scholar, a gentle- 
man, and a patriot, scarcely equalled and 
certainly never surpassed. 

No member in that honorable body 
served on more committees, executed 
more business, or gave greater satisfaction. 
Whence this will account for the honor and 
distinction conferred on him as joint com- 
missioner with Dr. Franklin, to negotiate 
an alliance with France, thus associating 
him, a young man of thirty- three, with the 
venerable philosopher of seventy, who was 
the most distinguished civil character in 
America. But sensible as he was of this 
high honor, his determination was not 
changed. Jefferson's just and high appre- 
ciation of the honor conferred on him by 
Congress, in the appointing of him coadju- 
tor with Franklin, will be best expressed 
in his reply. 

Williamsburg, October ii, 1776. 

"Honorable Sir: — Your favor of the 
30th, together with the resolutions of Con- 



I/O LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

gress, of the 26th ultimo, came safe to 
hand. It would argue great Insensibility 
in me, could I receive with Indifference so 
confidential an appointment from your 
body. My thanks are a poor return for 
the partiality they have been pleased to 
entertain for me. No cares for my own 
person, nor yet for my private affairs, would 
have Induced one moment's hesitation to 
accept the charge. But circumstances very 
peculiar in the situation of my family, such 
as neither permit me to leave, nor to carry 
it, compel me to ask leave to decline a ser- 
vice so honorable, and, at the same time, so 
important to the American cause. The 
necessity under which I labor, and the 
conflict I have undergone for three days, 
durlnor which I could not determine to dls- 

o 

miss your messenger, will, I hope, plead 
my pardon with Congress ; and I am sure 
there are too many of that body to whom 
they may, with better hopes, confide this 
charge, to leave them under a moment's 
difficulty In making a new choice. I am,( 
sir, with the most sincere attachment to 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I7I 

your honorable body, and die great cause 
they support, their and your most obedient, 
humble servant." 

This answer to Congress is similar to the 
one he sent to the Virginia Legislature, 
whence his reasons, in his private memo- 
randa, for remaining in the Virmnia Legris- 
lature remain unchanged, and to his labors 
there we will now turn our attention. 

Each of the American colonies was more 
or less distinctive in its organization ana 
form of government. But Virginia may, 
without an invidious distinction, be called 
queen of the American colonies. It was 
settled by a grant from Queen Elizabeth, 
in the latter part of her reign, to Sir Walter 
Raleigh, and thence received its name in 
honor of the queen. Sir Walter was born 
in 1552, in Devonshire, educated at Oxford, 
and served with ereat merit and distinction 
in the army of the French Protestants, 
and accompanied his half-brother. Sir 
Humphrey Gilbert, in a voyage to Amer- 
ica ; and in 1582 he attracted the atten- 



1/2 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

tion of Queen Elizabeth by an act of gal- 
lantry worthy of notice. Seeing the queen 
had to pass over a wet spot, he threw his 
cloak on the muddy ground for her to walk 
upon, and thenceforth he stood in high 
favor with the queen. 

He made his settlement in Virginia by a 
grant from Queen Elizabeth. But after 
her death, he was for a mere pretext 
brought to trial for treason ; and though 
condemned to die, he was not executed, 
but confined in the tower for twelve years, 
during which he wrote his history of the 
world. But subsequently he was brought 
to the block in 1618. The colony of \'ir- 
ginia was settled by Englishmen of high 
standing in favor of the government, in 
both church and state, and also with strict 
fidelity to the Crown ; among whom were 
the ancestors of George Washington. 
These settlers, having purchased large 
tracts of land, were called planters, from 
whom was derived a large revenue to the 
Crown and the government, in both church 
and state, the same as in England ; except 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1/3 

they were not allowed the right of repre- 
sentation. But in all other respects the 
oath of allegiance and law of entails 
established and preserved the same distinc- 
tions in society as that of England. The 
first born son, whatever might be his tal- 
ents or capacity, was heir and successor to 
his father ; and this class constituted what 
was known as the aristocracy ; whilst all 
the rest of the family formed the second 
class, called plebeians, or the plebeian 
ranks, and independent yeomanry ; and 
finally the lowest class was that of the 
overseers of the slaves. Although these 
distinctions were firmly established, and 
patiently endured, until the revohUion, yet 
the grievous oppressions of the govern- 
ment having fallen upon all without dis- 
tinction, the aristocracy united with the 
democracy in resistance even unto the re- 
bellion ; in most instances taking but little 
thought of the change which independence 
would bring about. Whence, while the 
united struggle against oppression was 
progressing, that state of things finally 
15^ 



174 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

prevailed to bring about the revolution in 
all its fulness — not only a new nation, 
but likewise a new form of government, 
viz., that of the people, without distinction 
except personal worth or merit. 

This change Mr. Jefferson had foreseen, 
and with remarkable sagacity had given 
shape to the affairs in Virginia to bring 
about this government of the people. Even 
w^hilst he was in Congress, he had aided in 
many ways the formation of a state consti- 
tution, and a settled form of government in 
its legislative and administrative power; 
but, as yet, the judiciary remained un-^ 
chano^ed ; wherefore to this he now di- 
rected his whole and entire attention. 

By birth and fortune Mr. Jefferson be- 
longed to the aristocracy ; but his habits 
and intellectual tastes revolted from the 
indulgent and voluptuous habits and lives 
of many of that class ; and his political 
principles and sympathies also drew him 
strongly to the independent yeomanry, with 
whom his father and grandfather preferred 
to associate. He had, therefore, all along 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I75 

determined, at a proper time, to overthrow 
the English law of entails, which he re- 
garded as the keystone of this pernicious 
oligarchy of the ancient dominion, where- 
by not talents or virtue, but rather a 
hereditary wealth and fortune, regardless 
of virtue or talents, prevailed. And with 
this determination, Jefferson took his seat 
in the Virginia Legislature on the 7th of 
October, 1776. On the opening day of the 
session, and on the nth, he obtained leave 
to bring in a bill for the establishment of 
the courts of justice. The proposition was 
referred to a committee, of which he was 
chairman. He drafted the ordinance, and\ 
submitted it to the committee, by whom it; 
was approved, and reported to the house,' 
and in the ordinary course unanimously 
adopted. This divided the state into coun- 
ties, with the three distinct grades of courts, 
viz., county, superior, and supreme, similar 
to that subsequently adopted by the United 
States, irriperatively requiring reference to 
a jury as required in all courts of law. 
And on the 12th of October, he brought in 



1/6 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

the bill for abolishlnof the law of entails. 
This was a cardinal measure, and prepared 
the way for laying the foundation of a 
sound government. It met with strong 
opposition, headed by Edmund Pendleton, 
the speaker of the house, whose personal 
influence was great, and whose ability in 
debate was of a high order. 

But after a severe contest, the bill finally 
passed, and thus was broken up the heredi- 
tary aristocracy, and the distinct orders of 
nobles and plebeians, forming one republic, 
wherein the civil, political, and religious 
rights and institutions should be distinct 
from, and yet act in harmony with, each 
other. And for this history had as yet 
formed no model. Whence that which we 
Americans have since enjoyed resulted 
from the judicious attention and persever- 
ing labors of Mr. Jefferson on the dissolu- 
tion of monarchy, and the formation of 
our Republican Government; in securing 
and preserving all these relations in peace 
and harmony, beyond any thing of which 
history can boast. 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. IJ'J 

In his own writings 'he thus expressed 
himself. "When I left Congress in 1776, 
it was in the persuasion that our whole 
code must be reviewed, adapted to our re- 
publican form of government ; and now 
that we had no neeatives of councils, orov- 
ernors, and kings, to restrain us from doing- 
right, that it should be corrected in all its 
parts, with a single eye to reason, and the 
good of those for whose government it 
was formed." 

On the 5th of November, 1776, by a 
resolution of Mr. Jefferson, a committee of 
five persons was appointed, viz., Jefferson, 
Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, George 
Mason, and Thomas L. Lee, to revise, alter, 
amend, repeal, or introduce all or any of 
the said laws, to form the same into bills, 
and report them to the next meeting of the 
General Assembly. The committee having 
settled the general principles on which to 
execute the labor, Messrs. Mason and Lee, 
not being lawyers, excused themselves ; 
and it was therefore divided thus — the 
whole common law, and the statutes to the 

M 



1/8 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

f9urth of James I., were assigned to Mr. 
Jefferson. The British statutes from that 
time were assigned to Mr. Wythe ; and the 
Virginia laws to Mr. Pendleton. And this 
committee of revisors, amidst all the cares, 
perplexities, and labors of the revolution, 
completed within two years their herculean 
labors, in the month of February, 1779. 
And this code, the major part of which 
was prepared by Mr. Jefferson himself, was 
brought within the compass of one hundred 
and twenty-six bills, providing for the civil, 
political, and religious rights and enjoy- 
ments as proclaimed in the Declaration of 
Independence. 

The autumn of 1776, in which Mr. Jeffer- 
son returned to Virginia, was the darkest 
and most dismal period of the revolution. 
When he arrived in Virginia, he found it 
in a state of distraction. The courage of 
the people had fallen into a temporary 
panic and despondency ; and in this con- 
fusion there were some who proposed to 
make Patrick Henry, the Governor, a dic- 
tator. Whether he desired it, or would have 



LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. I/Q 

accepted it, does not fully appear. But 
there is reason to suspect that he would 
have accepted it. Colonel Archibald Gary, 
meeting the step-brother of Henry in the 
lobby of the house, said to him, '' I am told 
your brother wishes to be dictator. Tell 
him from me, that the day of his appoint- 
ment shall be the day of his death — for he 
shall feel my dagger in his heart before the 
sunset of that day." And from this we 
may judge concerning Jefferson's motives 
for returning to Virginia, and likewise 
award to him the merit, so justly due, for 
the establishment in Virginia, in the short 
space of three years, of the principles of 
freedom, good government, and the enjoy- 
ment of life, liberty, and the pursuits of 
happiness. As he could ahvays furnish 
fuel for the fire when necessary, so also 
could he apply the wet blanket when the 
flames were to be extinguished. 



THE END. 



liMiilliii^ 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




011 838 437 4 



